rural news 05 april 2016
DESCRIPTION
Rural News 05 April 2016TRANSCRIPT
RURALNEWS
MANAGEMENTNgai Tahu Farming sets the standards high. PAGE 31
ANIMAL HEALTHStud insures against sudden death of sheep. PAGE 36 BLNZ AGM
Chairman warns against infighting
and creating divisions.PAGE 17
TO ALL FARMERS, FOR ALL FARMERS
THIRSTY WORK!The inaugural Farmstrong Fit 4 Farming national cycle tour is now travelling the length of the country to promote the need for farmers to look after their physical and mental health. Rural News caught up with the peloton on the most ambitious part of the cycle tour – Molesworth Station – last week. Twenty riders have cycled from Ngatea to Invercargill from March 18 to April 2 and have contributed towards the overall Farmstrong Challenge goal of 4 million km cycled by July 2016. The Fit 4 Farming Cycle Tour is the brainchild of former farmer Ian Handcock and his charity Fit 4 Farming. PHOTO: RICHARD COSGROVE. More on p 14
APRIL 5, 2016: ISSUE 604 www.ruralnews.co.nz
MIE WON’T BUDGE
TO PAGE 3
MEAT INDUSTRY Excellence (MIE) chairman Dave McGaveston has dismissed as “naïve” the Beef + Lamb NZ board argument that fur-ther funding of MIE is futile.
MIE won’t give up on its cam-paign for consolidation, he says, despite two proposals to BLNZ being dumped by the farmer vote.
A remit for more funding for MIE was opposed by 75% of the vote and another to replace the two proces-sor company representatives on the BLNZ board with MIE representa-tives was opposed by 76%.
McGaveston told Rural News the results weren’t a surprise because farmers have switched off from engagement with BLNZ and “a lot of farmers didn’t even open their BLNZ envelope”. “They are going broke while BLNZ is still focused inside the farmgate.”
McGaveston says BLNZ’s argu-ment that meat companies are not interested in reform and therefore funding MIE is worthless does not hold water.
“Why would the processing com-panies lead reform?” he asks. “There is no way, because it means that some of them will lose their posi-tions. Everyone is in patch protec-tion including BLNZ.
“Sitting back waiting for the processors to initiate reform is not going to happen – it’s just a dream.”
PAM TIPA
Messages confusingCONFLICTING MESSAGES from Fon-terra and market analysts is causing grief to dairy farmers.
That’s the view of Labour’s pri-mary industries spokesman Damien O’Connor who says that, on one day alone, Fonterra chair John Wilson was saying the market should pick up at the end of the year, while HSBC analysts were saying there is no chance this is likely to happen.
O’Connor says farmers who want to make better long term decisions are getting messages that are most alarming because they need a clear steer.
“While of course it is hard to pre-dict the medium term market situa-
tion, the analysts and the farmers who own the company pretty much need to be on the same page when it comes to advice, and that is not happening,” he told Rural News.
“Fonterra hasn’t helped with its poor communications to farmers and the wider public. I have seen statements that are hopeful rather than helpful and I think farmers are getting a little tired of that and are seeing through it.”
O’Connor says Fonterra has to speak out of both sides of its mouth given that it’s talking to investors and unit holders on the one hand and to farmer suppli-ers on the other.
He believes farmers need to take a very conservative strategy in their businesses. Farmers who have already wound back their costs should continue to do so and others who haven’t should do so immediately.
“I [favour] the long term projec-tions by economist Peter Fraser that a $5.00 payout is the norm, plus or a minus a dollar. This means in a good year a $6.00 payout and in a bad year $4.00 and this is probably the paradigm farmers should be working in.”
O’Connor believes the dairy indus-try is in for a major restructure and says there are indications that land prices will fall 20-40%.
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
NEWS 3
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ISSUE 604www.ruralnews.co.nz
NEWS�������������������������������������1-17
WORLD ��������������������������������������18
MARKETS ������������������������ 20-21
AGRIBUSINESS �������������� 22-23
HOUND, EDNA ����������������������� 24
CONTACTS ������������������������������ 24
OPINION ���������������������������� 24-27
MANAGEMENT �������������� 28-32
ANIMAL HEALTH ����������34-37
MACHINERY AND PRODUCTS ����������������������38-42
RURAL TRADER ������������������� 43
IT’S THE quintessential New Zealand tourist picture: a long straight road and a mob of sheep forcing the sparse traffic to stop.
This mob of around 500 was being driven along SH82 from Wainui Station, near Waimate, by shepherd Erin and her dogs. They were going back to a hill paddock after crutching on the station.
This scene has been repeated up and down the country over the last few weeks, as farmers took the opportunity to protect sheep from flystrike.
Kurow shearing contractor Grant Murdoch told Rural News he has been busy with his local shearers doing mainly fine wool crutching in the district.
Things had been a little quieter, as the wide-spread dry weather in the region kept lamb numbers down: most had been moved to where feed was available – mainly Southland.
But things are now picking up for Murdoch, he said, and his gangs expect to work until October.
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McGaveston claims MIE’s Pathways report shows a $450m year-on-year opportunity, which equates to $50,000 on a 5000 stock unit farm.
“That’s a significant saving. That’s not even including the opportunities that exist in the marketing side of it.
“While BLNZ does everything to stop the process, they are doing their levy payers and my fellow farmers a dis-service. MIE is not prepared to give up on this opportunity for farmers. But it has to be farmer led and farmers hold the key.”
He says perhaps MIE was naïve to
think farmers would read the Pathways report and he has also heard from a number of BLNZ councillors and direc-tors that they haven’t read it.
He says everyone should at least read sections 6 and 7, pages 57 and 58. (www.meatindustryexcellence.co.nz/mie-report-2015/)
“This is not just a Newco (Silver Fern Farms and Alliance amalgama-tion) proposal; we’ve got lots of other opportunities out there.”
McGaveston says the attacks by BLNZ have turned farmers off. BLNZ spent $750,000 to get the commod-ity levies approved and 39% of farmers
engaged in that vote, of whom 32% sup-ported the continuation of BLNZ.
“Given we spent nothing on this campaign it was pretty obvious we weren’t going to win.”
McGaveston agrees if the Silver Fern farms sale to Shanghai Maling goes ahead it will put the Newco proposal on the backburner. But that sale doesn’t solve industry issues, doesn’t rational-ise the industry, doesn’t remove any excess capacity or deal with the con-tracted supply issue, he says.
“And it brings in foreign capital which could then mean that the beef industry would be 60% foreign owned
and the sheep industry about 40% for-eign owned.”
Approval processes, including the Overseas Investment Office, still must be finalised, and the deal has to be com-pleted by June 30.
“But if the SFF deal does reach a snag I believe there will be a totally different environment amongst farmers because those in favour of that… their balloon will be burst,” says McGaveston.
“There is a lot to go on in the next few months. If we did what James Parsons said and just buggered off I believe we would do farmers a disser-vice.”
FROM PAGE 1
Hell no; we won’t go!
RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
4 NEWS
STICK TO YOUR KNITTING Sun-blest grape harvest beginsUNDER THE swelter-ing North Canterbury sun the 2016 grape harvest has begun.
Waipara Hills vine-yard kicked off this year’s vintage just before Easter when it started harvest-ing pinot noir grapes to be made into rose and bubble base.
Winemaker Simon McGeorge said with weather permitting they’ll be harvesting their char-donnay grapes in about two weeks.
Waipara Hills uses mechanical harvesters for 90% of the 200ha it has in grapes. McGeorge says one harvester can cover about a hectare an hour and the fruit arrives in
a better condition than what humans can do.
McGeorge told Rural News the harvesters also enable them to cover more ground with con-sistent quality, as the machines de-stem, and remove leaves and leaf litter so only grapes arrive in the vats.
Ironically the harvest-ers are made in Europe, but many of the vineyards
there are too small for the machines to be financially viable for most.
Despite overnight rain when the harvest began, McGeorge said there was about 48 hours after rain to harvest before the grapes began to be affected by the moisture.
The mechanical har-vesters have blowers that rid the canopy of water so the grapes arrive dry in
the vats.According to
McGeorge, the season this year had been great: a largely dry February had enabled the grapes to ripen without damage.
With 74 vineyards in Waipara and 1250ha in grapes, it’s about to get very busy in North Can-terbury as wineries begin to reap the benefits of the past year’s toil.
RICHARD COSGROVE
Mechanical harvesters start the 2016 grape harvest at the Waipara Hills vineyard in North Canterbury.
DAIRY FARMERS thinking about con-verting to sheep milking have been warned to carefully con-sider any such move, according to an organiser of a recent sheep milking conference.
Associate professor Craig Prichard, Massey University, says sheep milking is never going to come anywhere near replacing the bovine industry.
He says he recently had a farmer call from Taranaki asking what sort of sheep milking operation he could run on 250ha. But Pritchard says he told the farmer he was asking the wrong question.
“I asked him where is his market and who he is going to sell his milk to?”
Prichard says people in the bovine industry are so used to having someone to take their milk they are asking the wrong questions.
“Everyone in the sheep milking busi-
ness has to solve the market and the pro-ducer problem first. Where is my market, who am I going to sell to? That drives the production process. In the bovine industry, they do not think market first,
they are a supplier driven industry.”
Prichard says every bovine dairy farmer in New Zealand struggles to see their market and notes that it’s an institu-tional problem. He knows of many dairy farmers who say their industry is not connecting with cus-tomers.
“On the other hand, the sheep milking industry is putting customers right at
the core of it and they are the ones who are going to drive this sector.”
Prichard says the sheep milking con-ference was very successful, with great scientific presentations and a general showcasing of where the industry has got to in a relatively short time. Much has happened in one year, he says. – More on sheep milking conference next issue.
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
NEWS 5
Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings and chair John Wilson are walking a tough road at present with low payouts and a constitutional review of the co-op on the agenda.
Fonterra review proposal to go to farmersA DRAFT proposal on Fonterra’s gov-ernance structure will be put to farm-ers this month.
The proposal will include feed-back from farmer shareholders, fol-lowing a round of shed meetings, and the results of work by the co-op and Shareholders Council since 2013.
Fonterra chairman John Wilson says another round of farmer meet-
ings will be held to discuss the draft proposal.
Wilson says it had received very good feedback from farmers after the first round of meetings.
“We will go back to our farmer shareholders within one or two weeks with the draft proposal,” he told Rural News.
The review follows calls last year by shareholders and former directors Colin Armer and Greg Gent to shrink the board and increase its calibre.
Fonterra released a 13-page ‘con-versation starter’ ahead of farmer meetings last month; it aims to have any changes to its structure put before shareholders for a vote in May.
Fonterra hasn’t changed its gov-ernance and representation arrange-ments since it was set up 15 years ago, although it did a full review in 2013.
Gent and Armer have proposed a nine member board; the proposal was backed by 54% of farmers at Fonter-ra’s annual meeting last November.
SUDESH KISSUN
MANAGING THE DOWNTURNFONTERRA FARMERS will hear tips from two international financial experts on how to manage the current dairy downturn.
Fonterra Shareholders Council has secured the services of Chicago broker Brian Rice and Australasian international banker John (JT) McFarlane, to address eight seminars nationwide this month.
Council chairman Duncan Coull said commodity volatility continued to have a significant effect onfarm.
“Brian and JT are knowledgeable and engaging presenters who, through a mixture of economics, industry analysis and market knowledge, will ensure our farmers leave the seminars with greater clarity on the current global dairy commodity situation.
Coull says the presentations and discussion would provide farmers with great value.
“An important part the council’s representation role is providing our farmers with a forum for open dialogue with individuals such as Brian and JT. They are willing and able to speak candidly and impartially on a subject of the utmost importance to our industry.”
The first seminar begins at 11am on Monday, April 11 in Whangarei.
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
6 NEWS
Health and safety must be a priority
WORKSAFE NZ’S chief executive says farmers should place a high priority on health and safety plans rather than doing them as the last job at the end of the working week.
Gordon MacDonald’s comments come as the new Health and Safety at Work Act comes into force on April 4. He says the new act should come under the banner of ‘looking after my mates’ and become an important part of any business.
He adds the ‘she’ll be right’ approach has no place in the current environ-ment and shouldn’t have had for the past 20 years under the previous act.
MacDonald says the new legis-lation’s three key new provisions come down to the farmer’s duty to manage and take responsibility for risk. Under the act, a farm is treated like any normal business, so anyone on a farm at any time is responsible for risks they may create.
“If there are contractors onfarm they can create a risk for the farmer, or the farming activity can create a risk for the farmer and the contractor or
a visitor,” he told Rural News. “First, [the farmer and farm visitor]
simply need to have a conversation and cooperate on how they will manage risk together.
“Second, the new legislation empha-sises the importance of leadership. That says if you are the senior officer of a business – such as chief executive or a director – you need to exercise due diligence on health and safety.”
MacDonald says this means having information flowing to you on what the key risks of the business are and the key controls that are in some way tracking this, to show that you are on course to
deliver what the law requires and your policy objective.
Third is a provision for worker and management involvement in health and safety matters.
“This is the idea that the workers are at the sharp end and have a good feel for what the day-to-day issues are. The law says workers should be engaged and should participate in risk identification and management in the workplace.”
MacDonald says the new law also requires people to think and plan for health and safety, and how it might be applied before taking any actions – “who could be harmed, the likelihood
of this occurring and some sensible control and mitigation methods”.
He says an example of good H&S practice would be for a farm to have a whiteboard accessible to all staff and encourage them to identify and write up risks up on this board.
However, just writing things up is not enough, MacDonald says. There must be real engagement and commit-ment to change by staff and managers.
“Staff views must be taken seriously and having a good H&S culture onfarm is now a priority.”
PETER BURKE
FARMERS WHO already have adopted a health and safety plan will not find the new legislation difficult to comply with, Gordon MacDonald claims.
But he warns that farmers who have lagged behind in this regard will find the laws a wake-up call.
“We’ll take an educative approach in the early stages of the legislation: if we can see people have their heads around those issues and are trying to make some prog-ress on them, that’s fine,” MacDonald told Rural News.
However, if there is a serious risk to a farmer,
worker or a visitor on April 3, then it will be a serious risk on April 4 and we’ll be handling that in the same way as we usually do,” he says.
MacDonald says Work-Safe has already distributed 10,000 Safer Farm Tool Kits, and DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb NZ and Federated Farmers
have also informed their farmer members. The Work-Safe website is a source of information about the new law.
“All this activity points to an interest and appetite to obtain information and comply with the new law,” he says. “Hopefully
this will lead to improved outcomes because, as you know, agriculture sits at the top of fatality statistics, contributing over 30% of all fatalities in the workplace in NZ.”
Agriculture also features high in serious harm acci-dents.
A WAKE UP CALL TO THE LAGGARDS
WorkSafe NZ chief executive Gordon MacDonald.
@rural_news
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
NEWS 7
More milk poured into higher value products
FONTERRA HAS shifted one billion litres of milk into its high returning consumer and foods business over the past 18 months, chief executive Theo Spierings claims.
Reacting to criticism that the dairy co-op has not built up its value-add business and relies too heavily on the commodity markets, Spier-ings says its consumer business has grown to $6.5 billion, generat-ing higher returns and driving divi-dend payments to farmers and unit holders.
For the first half of 2015-16, Fon-terra poured an extra 235 million L of milk into consumer foods.
Spierings says this business returns 25 to 30% on the value of milk. “It’s a very high returning business and drives our dividend
payment.”The co-op reported a half-year
normalised EBIT of $665 million, up 77% on the previous year; net profit after tax (NPAT) was $409 million, up 123%.
For the consumer and foodser-vice business, normalised EBIT jumped 108% to $241m and for the ingredients business, up 27% to $617m.
However, the co-op suffered a $29m loss in its Chinese farms busi-ness; its Australian business also suf-fered a loss of $28m.
Sales volume for six months to January 31, 2016 rose 10% to 2.5 bil-lion liquid milk equivalent (LME), producing 887,000 tonnes of prod-ucts.
Asia and Oceania led the growth; in China and Taiwan Fonterra’s food service business took on two more cities, taking the total to 42.
The co-op’s chef-led foodser-vice model and strategy in Asia, UHT milk exports out of New Zea-land to China and fresh milk and butter sales in New Zealand also lifted sales.
Lower input costs resulting from lower dairy ingredient pricing also helped; Fonterra’s consumer and food service businesses in Asia, greater China and Oceania source ingredients from NZ.
Fonterra says prices were reduced in most countries due to lower dairy prices. “However, the quality and reputation of our prod-ucts limited the impact of lower prices,’” it says.
The co-op is struggling to return its Australian consumer and food service business to profit. It hopes that production of high value infant formula at its Darnum plant will change things.
SUDESH KISSUN
SUPPLIERS WALKON THE Canterbury Plains there’s a sea change underway in dairying.
The challenge of something new has led Mid-Canterbury dairy farmers Brent and Sharon Trafford to leave Fonterra and become a2 milk pro-ducers for Synlait.
At the end of this season the Traffords will become one of the 201 suppliers to Synlait’s Dunsandel dairy factory, joining the growing band of a2 only milk suppliers.
Three years ago Synlait had three sup-pliers who were a2 only and that will grow to 65 in the new season.
When a2 started coming to the pub-lic’s attention a few years ago the Traf-fords were interested in it, but with no incentive for farmers to produce it a2 lost momentum though the Trafford’s were still keen.
With Synlait offering a premium of 20 cents extra per kgMS that has changed. By the start of the next season the Traffords will have around 750 a2 only cows on their
225ha farm. Synlait’s Mark Burnside said a2 milk
demand was growing; most of Synlait’s production was going to Australia and the
company is planning to sell directly to the USA and China.
All Synlait’s a2 milk is powdered for its export mar-kets in products like a2 Platimum Infant Formula.
Brent Trafford says they went to Synlait and found the people good to deal with and they believe in what they
are doing. They also liked the close-knit feel of an organisation that’s working on the same page and because of the scale of the company it has more one-on-one interaction.
The sale of their Fonterra shares was an obvious benefit to the Traffords as is the 20 cent premium. However, by becoming a2 milk suppliers they were also getting into a value-added product that gets them away from the commod-ity market.
Brent and Sharon Trafford are joining Synlait Milk as a2 suppliers.
WHY THE HONDA TRX WORKS ON FARM
EXC GST. FOR A LIMITED TIME
TRX500FE2 ONLY $13,039
HONDA FOREMAN
EXC GST. FOR A LIMITED TIME
HONDA RANCHER
TRX420FM1ONLY $11,300
PROVEN HONDA POWER-PLANT WITH OVERHEAD VALVES
The Honda engine provides strong and smooth power delivery. Compact dimensions work with the new chassis to improve ground clearance.
4WD TRAX-LOK AND FRONT DIFF-LOCK
Trax-lok 4WD system combined with a front diff-lock (TRX500 only) ensures the TRX can handle any tough New Zealand terrain.
LONGITUDINALLY MOUNTED ENGINE
Unique to Honda. This allows direct drive-shaft alignment to both front and
rear wheels for maximum drive train efficiency. No drive belts and fewer parts to service aids durability.
REDESIGNED FRONT & REAR SUSPENSION COMPONENTS
Allows increased suspension travel for a more compliant ride and more adjustable suspension components.
CHASSIS 20% STIFFER THEN PREVIOUS MODELS
Providing more precise handling while maintaining a smoother ride.
NEW RUBBER SWING ARM BUSHINGS
New bushings are bonded to the swing arm collars allowing protection from dirt entering the swing arm and causing wear.
www.hondamotorbikes.co.nzPromotion ends 31st May 2016. Prices exclude GST. Available at participating Honda dealers only.
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
NEWS 9
Sheep and beef farmers reject MIE
MEAT INDUSTRY Excellence (MIE) has overwhelmingly lost its bid for more funding from Beef + Lamb NZ (BLNZ), with 75% of farmers voting against the proposal.
It also lost its bid to have the two processor representation positions on the BLNZ board replaced by two direc-tors from MIE.
Electionz.com, which conducted the vote on behalf of BLNZ, says the first remit on funding was lost on a vote of 75% against and 23% in favour. This equated to 12,168 votes for the remit,
39,777 against, and 777 abstained.The first remit was: “That Beef +
Lamb New Zealand Ltd endorse and fund all professional costs incurred by Meat Industry Excellence (MIE) to continue developing and implement-ing the savings and positive opportuni-ties as identified by MIE in the farmer funded ‘Pathways to Long Term Sus-tainability Report’.
The second remit – “That the two positions of processor representation on Beef + Lamb New Zealand Ltd be removed and replaced initially with two directors from Meat Industry Excel-lence (MIE)” – also failed with 76% of voters against and 20% in favour.
Voting was 10,616 for the remit, 40,471 against and 1439 abstained.
BLNZ chairman James Parsons told Rural News he was pleased the Meat Industry Excellence delegates to the annual meeting in Waitangi played the ball not the man in the discussion – and just debated the principles.
“We let them have the opportunity to debate the case,” he says.
Some of the discussion drifted away from funding to the need for the indus-
try reform. He had heard most of the arguments before but the board was still firm in not supporting the remit.
“One of the points I made is that we have given quite a bit of funding to MIE over and above the $290,000 for the Pathways report and the business plan; we gave them $20,000 prior to help develop a business plan.
“They had a remit in 2014 similar to what we had today. It was short on detail, more on principle… so in 2014
after farmers voted in support of that remit we gave them some funding to put a business plan together.
“The first time they brought that back to us we said that is not good enough to fund, go back and do some more work. Finally we found something we thought was worth funding.
“Prior to that we’d given them a lot of funding – $60,000 in total – to help with some of the awareness meetings on the need for industry reform. That was back when MIE first got going – back in 2013 and there were all those meetings they ran.
“Then there was a budget over-run on the Pathways report which we helped out with – just under $20,000. BLNZ feels we have been very reason-able and tried to help MIE get some of this stuff out.
“We don’t believe funding more analysis and more awareness cam-paigns will really change anything unless there is a real appetite from the commercial base to actually do some-thing about it. That’s the justification of the board’s position.”
There wasn’t a lot of support from the floor for having MIE members replacing industry directors on the board, said Parsons – apart from the MIE members themselves.
PAM TIPA
MIXED FORTUNESIN TERMS of the mood around the industry Parsons says the beef and wool side is reasonably pleased with some of the pricing. But lamb and mutton prices have been a real disappointment.
“So farmers will want to see something different. Some of this is volatility – that is something we are going to have to get better at managing and living with. It is not
something that will ever stop.“I think one of the issues is lack of
demand for lamb. We can talk about volatility until the cows come home, but if there is high demand for lamb you ride through that in a lot better fashion.”
They want to have good discus-sions with farmers about options as they go through their farmer meet-ings round this winter.
Despite the current low ebb in the sheep sector, farmers overwhelmingly did not support lobby group’s MIE remits at the BLNZ annual meeting.
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
NEWS 11
NZ sheep milk research enviedA WORLD expert on the sheep milking industry says UK farmers would be envious of the level of research being done in New Zealand into sheep milking.
John Ryrie, from the UK and now managing the Spring Sheep Dairy operation on a Landcorp farm near Taupo, told Rural News that the NZ sheep milking industry is backed by good research. He says the research in NZ is by highly competent people and supported by government agencies.
But while there is growing interest in the sheep milking industry in NZ, Ryrie says people need to have realistic expectations of what can be achieved and not draw comparisons to the bovine milk sector. He says it won’t replace bovine alone in the quantity of milk produced.
“I also don’t think it’s a fad. Fads signify to me short-lived and this is not short-lived. There is a market in China among a large population with specific needs for sheep milk products for nutrition and digestive requirements,” Ryrie explained.
“The other factor is a cow will give you 3000L a year in NZ, whereas a sheep will do 400 to possibly 800L a year. So it’s important that sheep milk is not a commodity product. This is a product that can be refined and produced for specific markets and for specific people in the population.”
Ryrie says much changed in the NZ sheep milking sector in the space of a year, as reflected in this year’s conference. A year ago the talk was about the potential of the sector and what could be done, he says.
“This year we have more sheep milking
A YEAR ago John Ryrie moved from the UK to NZ to
head up Spring Sheep Dairy, a joint venture between
Landcorp and a marketing company, SLC.
The first year has passed in setting up the farm and
training staff in the art of milking sheep. Ryrie says
when the new season starts, the staff will be ready to
go and will understand the systems – no stress.
With the initial setup done, Ryrie says they are now
looking to improve the genetic composition of the
flock.
“We are looking to import genetics to improve and
broaden the bloodlines within our flock. We will prob-
ably bring in a mix of semen and embryos,” he told
Rural News. “Semen is the quickest fix because we
can get a large number of semen straws in to cover
a large number of our ewes in the short term; but to
get very specific, high-quality bloodlines we’d use
embryos.”
The latter will take time given the approval process
which Ryrie supports. He says safeguarding NZ’s
biosecurity is paramount. But once approval is given it
will be a great opportunity for NZ to expand its genetic
pool of milking sheep.
Ryrie says he’s delighted to work in NZ and while
there are challenges – including facial eczema – he
believes these can be overcome. NZ’s drier climate
will result in less foot problems and overall the sheep
milking industry will do better here than in Europe.
– More on sheep milking conference next issue.
STAFF TRAINED, READY TO GO
PETER BURKE
flocks established, we are looking at components of milk and where to go with those components in the market. It’s a credit to the organisers
of the conference and to the research bodies involved and all the farmers who have taken up the challenge of sheep milking.”
John Ryrie says people need to have realistic expectations about sheep milking.
RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
12 NEWS
Taylor-made for ploughing
ANGELA TAYLOR is one of two women who have qual-ified for this year’s New Zealand Ploughing Champion-ships to be held at Rongotea on April 16 and 17.
“There are only two women competing at this level, myself in the North Island and Tryphena Carter in the South Island,” Taylor told Rural News.
Other women also compete in the vintage plough-ing division and in horse ploughing.
Taylor says her husband Malcolm started compet-ing with a conventional plough in 2004 and changed to reversible ploughing in 2005 and she had travelled and supported him until 2007 when she decided to com-pete herself.
“I was a dairy farmer and had been around and using machinery most of my life – so why not?” she says. “And learning to plough was fairly straightforward.”
Taylor has a modified Kverneland conventional two furrow plough with plastic mould boards and uses a McCormack C85 Max tractor.
By her own reckoning, she believes she has com-peted in over 80 matches with numerous wins and placings.
She does all the truck and trailer driving in taking her tractor and plough and other competitors’ tractors and ploughs to various matches nationwide.
TONY HOPKINSON
NZ ploughing champs all set to goARRANGEMENTS FOR the this year’s New Zea-land Ploughing Champi-onships – the 61st – are in place for the finals at Rongotea, Manawatu, on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 of April.
The organising com-mittee, chaired by Paul
Henson, has organised the stubble plots for the first day and the grassland plots for the next.
Currently there are 10 entrants in the con-ventional and five in the reversible divisions. The winners will qualify to rep-resent New Zealand at the next World Champion-ships in Kenya in Decem-
ber 2017.Meanwhile there is
an extra incentive for the seven entrants in the vin-tage ploughing division. The winner and runner-up will be invited to the 2016 World Championships in York, UK, on September 10 and 11.
“This is a first to invite vintage ploughs from
around the world, but vin-tage ploughing has a lot of interest in UK and it rep-resented a golden oppor-tunity,” World Ploughing Association chair Colin Millar told Rural News. “However, they will not be part of the World Champi-onships.”
In the horse plough-ing division, sponsored
by Rural News Group, there are six entries. These include Colin Drum-mond’s six horse team and Erin Cassie’s two horse team, both from Erewhon Station in Canterbury. All the ploughing work on Erewhon Station is done by working horses.
Two more horse entries come from Southland:
John Cheynoweth with Sharon Chambers and Sean Leslie with Kaye Wil-liams. The field is rounded out by Derek Thornton of Cambridge and last year’s winner Fred Pilling of Te Kowhai, Hamilton.
Two other horse entries will plough, but not in the competition, as they are new ploughmen.
TONY HOPKINSON
World Ploughing Association chair Colin Millar.
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
NEWS 13
Northland iwi farm collective raises prospect of a national vision
MORE FARMS are likely to join the Te Hiku, Northland, collective, in which current properties include Landcorp farms which have come under Treaty of Waitangi settlements.
It also may be the forerunner to a national initiative, with discussions underway between Te Hiku, Tainui, and Ngai Tahu.
Rangitane Marsden, chief executive of Ngai Takoto, outlined the Te Hiku (Tai Tokerau) sheep and beef farm-ing collective’s strategy at the Beef + Lamb NZ (BLNZ) annual meeting at Waitangi.
The collective has 11 farms from Mangamuka to Cape Reinga, and it is growing, having added two farms in the previous week, Marsden said.
About 16,000ha of farmland comes under the collective – there are eight ownership groups that combine local trusts, whanau and iwi trusts. They have at least 85,000 stock units.
One goal is to intensify meat pro-duction to create jobs in the process-ing sector.
Marsden says there’s potential for 18 more farms which would add another 15,000ha. They also hope to expand into Kaipara where they know some iwi farms are languishing because of isolation.
And Marsden says they have just sat down with Tainui and Ngai Tahu to look at an iwi collective across the country.
“There’s an appetite to develop a national strategy within the key pri-mary industries. The farming sectors,
the forestry sector – all over the country a joined up way would give us a whole national strategy rather than just a Northland strategy.
“That workshop starts in May to build a relationship between the Tainui and the Ngai Tahu who are investing heavily in all those key primary indus-tries.”
Marsden said with the Te Hiku sheep and beef collective they intend to farm with the long term goals of sus-tainability, efficiency and the need to care for local economies before anyone else’s economy.
He said they were hearing about Chinese conglomerates in the area and what they are doing to take control.
“We are not worried about that sort of thing. Our view is let’s take care of ourselves first, before we worry about anybody else outside the shores of New Zealand,” he told Rural News.
“Our aspirations are better utilisa-tion of our land to benefit our people. When we talk about our people we talk about not just Maori, we talk about the Northland economy. People need to understand that so there is no fear of a ‘them and us’ approach through this strategy.
“Our view is that if we don’t make Northland a funky place to live that raises the educational aspirations of children and provides employment opportunities, then we are not achiev-ing anything at all.
“Anyone can make money, but the need to maintain a balanced social con-
science as to how you make money is our goal. Our goal is to get our people – or any person interested in the farm-ing sector – skilled then employed. In terms of being Maori owned we like to brand ourselves and say we like to con-tribute to the future of the Northland economy.”
To do that they need to partner with people of capability and strategy, which likely will include BLNZ. They want to look outside the farmgate for added value and diversification opportunities.
The collective profile is pretty new. Through the Treaty settlement process they have inherited a number of farms from Landcorp, which is focused on dairy with beef as a sideline.
“We believe beef is a vital diversi-fication opportunity for the iwi vision and we want to go there because the potential to build a relationship with processors gives us more employment opportunities in the Moerewa-Dar-gaville area.”
Milk production may add a couple of jobs with each dairy platform. “But beef could bring 200-300 jobs in the processing sector.”
Marsden said they are deliberately slowing things down to get the formula right, building the strategy right from the beginning.
“Scale brings influence in terms of opportunities for processing, market-ing and branding,” he said.
They have already been approached by processors who say they can brand and market for them.
But the Te Hiku collective will also look at their values and whether the relationship brings value, or they will go elsewhere.
“The ‘elsewhere’ could be to other processors to negoti-ate better deals or, simply, if we’ve got enough scale, build our own.”
Some discussions had been held with Silver Fern Farms on processing oppor-tunities. They have also talked with Affco at Wairoa where they are hoping issues for workers can be settled “without us flexing too much muscle”.
Scale brings bargaining, selling and buying power. “So we can now have some influence over what happens to us.”
Skills and careers are a new path for Maori who previously often had left school to get a job and held onto it as long as they could, Marsden said.
They have fought for a relationship with Nga Puhi over the farm train-ing school at Northland College. The school will be reinvented with a dairy and a beef platform. Rather than rep-licate a farming training school they will get their people into Northland College. They have brought in North-Tec and Telford University to provide the qualifications.
“The goal is to create a primary sector centre of excellence around Northland and the Northland College area.”
The Te Hiku collective wants to cap-ture the value chain.
“We want to get outside the gate once we’ve got our scale and ourselves organised. We want to get into diversi-fication… anything that can break the product down to a whole lot of other opportunities. And also create more employment opportunities.
“Our goal is also to get branded overseas at some point – but where we own ourselves in that space.”
He said they are “fixated” on sus-tainability. “We know there will be major changes in the farming sector in the near future: we will have to get the cattle out of the water for a start.”
They will be proactive about initia-tives driven by the Government. There also may be employment opportunities in environmental work.
They have been told it is all doable. They are working with MPI, AgFirst, KPMG, BLNZ, Te Puna Kokiri, the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment and government.
A group of 11 farms owned by various iwi in Northland have formed a collective under the Te Hiku banner to gain greater influence through scale. They want scale for marketing and branding, creating local employment and career development and to gain bargaining power in strategic partnerships with processors. Pam Tipa reports.
Rangitane Marsden outlined the Te Hiku sheep and beef farming collective’s
strategy at BLNZ’s annual meeting.
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
14 NEWS
TEN YEARS CELEBRATED
THE FORESIGHT of South Island seed industry entrepreneurs and a French seed company was celebrated last month in the opening of a new building.
Seed Force, 10 years old in March, opened its new head office and national warehouse at 24 Gallagher Drive, Hornby, Christchurch.
Chairman Warwick Green noted that Seed Force is a leading wholesale seed company and a business success in bringing new technologies to New Zealand agriculture.
The company is a joint venture between RAGT, a leading European seed company in France, and local shareholders with significant seed industry experience.
Seed Force has pioneered the reintroduction of fodder beet into NZ agriculture and its widespread uptake.
“Today there is more fodder beet grown in NZ than wheat and the use of fodder beet in dairy and beef, lamb and deer finishing has huge potential. This industry now contributes greatly to growers’ profitability.”
Seed Force is one of the three major wholesale seed suppliers to NZ agriculture.
Farmers riding hard for farmersIT’S HOT, it’s dry and these farmers are sucking in lungfuls of dust from every passing vehicle, but they don’t care, they’re on a mission for all farmers.
Twenty farmers make up the pelo-ton on the inaugural Farmstrong Fit 4 Farming national cycle tour travelling the length of the country.
Rural News caught up with the pelo-ton on the most ambitious part of the cycle tour – Molesworth Station.
It’s fitting that a cycle tour for farm-ers should visit Molesworth – New Zea-land’s biggest farm; at 180,000ha it is home to NZ’s biggest herd of 10,000 cattle and stretches from Canterbury to Marlborough.
The road from one end of the station to the other end is 82km and it is one of NZ’s toughest roads. It is open to the public in summer, but only 7am to 7pm.
Alongside the road high voltage direct current pylons take 1200
megawatts of power from the Waitaki Hydro Scheme to the North Island. The gigantic cables carrying enough electricity to power two Wellington-size cities had a crackling hum, quite apt as the temperature climbed into the high 20s.
The cyclists didn’t stop at the end of the station however; they pushed on for another 26km over Jacks Pass into Hanmer Springs to rest for the night before going on.
The 20 riders cycled from Ngatea to Invercargill from March 18 to April 2 to
promote the need for farmers to look after their physical health so they can live and farm well.
The peloton rode 30,000km (excluding their preparation riding) and contributed towards the Farm-strong Challenge goal of 4 million km cycled by July 2016.
The Fit 4 Farming Cycle Tour, devel-oped by farmers for farmers, is the brainchild of former farmer Ian Hand-cock and his charity Fit 4 Farming.
Handcock is a dairy consultant in Thames, aiming to improve the health
of New Zealand farmers through exercise.
Horrified at the discovery that 75% of dairy farmers are at risk of cardiovas-cular disease, he committed himself to improving the wellbeing of farmers.
“Exercise helps release stress,” says Handcock. “If you’re feeling stressed do something physical.”
Five regional event days were held in Waikato, Taranaki, Manawatu, Ashburton and Invercargill. The public and farmers were invited to take part in activities including a 5km run.
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
NEWS 17
Stop the infighting!BEEF + LAMB NZ chairman James Parsons has warned against infighting and division becoming a characteristic of the sector.
There’s been debate and frustration on the industry structure and returns, he told the BLNZ annual meeting in Waitangi.
“It’s important that while we need to acknowledge the problems – problem definition is absolutely vital – we also need to focus on the things we agree on,” he says in his annual report
“Whatever we focus on enlarges, and if we continue to focus on the negatives in our sector, they will become the things that consume us. It’s important that we acknowledge the things that aren’t going right but we also need to focus on the things that are going well. Let’s build a pocket of excellence around those things and let them start growing and expanding.”
Culture is important, he said. “The culture of our sector needs to
be a culture of innovation, a culture of go-forward, a culture of a can-do attitude where we get out there and take on the world in a positive way in what we do.”
New Zealand culture in its values
and products needs to be shared with consumers over the globe.
“It’s important that we start speaking to the solution, not the problem. If we speak to the problem, what we’re doing is focusing on the problem. If we speak to the solution, we actually focus on the solution.”
An example is health and safety, which has been a focus; there is no doubt about the high accident rate in farming, he says.
“However, I think a lot of farmers have felt very judged and beaten up by the health and safety initiatives and WorkSafe. We’re engaged very closely with WorkSafe, also at a political level, to ensure we get good outcomes. And we’ve done that with Federated Farmers and DairyNZ.”
But that hasn’t been making big headlines.
“Our way of engaging is to get in there and try to influence the decisionmakers rather than leading protests around the Beehive,” he said.
However he has had calls from angry farmers ready to protest, which is useful to have in your hip pocket when talking to decisionmakers.
“We haven’t quite got the quad passenger thing across the line yet but we feel we’re close to coming to a good
resolution with WorkSafe on that. So watch this space.”
Lamb pricing is another problem. “We’re not getting enough for our lambs. There are quite a few solutions: one we’re focusing on is how to create more demand – both in new and existing markets.”
BLNZ now has some findings from the review of the $5.5m it spends on promotional activities on behalf of the sector and farmers. They are now testing those findings with focus groups and meat companies and will soon take them to farmers.
Looking at highlights, he said after years of decline in the numbers of undergraduate students studying agriculture at tertiary institutes, there is a big upswing.
Trade deals over the last few years have now saved $161 million in total annual tariffs for the sector.
Volatility is frustrating but becoming more and more significant. Wool has had a rebound, beef is hitting new territory where a ‘5’ in front of the schedule is now an accepted norm as
opposed to a ‘4’.Volatility has
worked against them in sheep meat, with a disappointing year for lamb and
mutton.“Volatility is something
we need to learn to manage – it’s not something we can ever minimise. It’s about having
resilient businesses, and more reserves
in our business in terms of what
we do. And it’s something
we’re deeply committed to at Beef + Lamb NZ – to help farmers manage through these things.”
PAM TIPA
BLNZ chair James Parsons.
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
18 WORLD
Arguments over EU milk control policyEUROPEAN FARMERS have different views on potential milk supply con-trol measures that were recently discussed at a Council of EU agriculture ministers.
Following a meeting
with French farm organ-isations and milk proces-sors, France’s agriculture minister Stéphane Le Foll reported that industry representatives supported organised milk produc-tion cuts.
Le Foll said he was “determined to mobilise all EU member states so that each takes respon-sibility for bringing mea-sures to fruition under article 222 of the common market organisation”.
Article 222 is the piece of European legislation authorising the dairy industry to organise vol-untary supply restrictions – such as the 10c/L incen-tive proposed by France to cut milk production.
The aim is to push prices up during a crisis, which is normally forbidden under competition rules.
EU member states and the European Commis-sion agreed on March 14 that the measure could be
used in the current crisis. However, Ireland’s Minis-ter for Agriculture Simon Coveney has said Ireland would not use it.
In a column by Irish Farmers Association (IFA) dairy executive Catherine Lascurettes in the Irish Farmers Jour-nal, she warned that arti-cle 222 measures are hard to implement in the first place.
“The utilisation of the article is subject to the decisions made not being found to undermine the proper functioning of the internal market, and the EU Commission must adopt ‘implementing acts’ to allow its use.”
Lascurettes cited the example of the Dutch farming organisation LTO, which built a case to use article 222 for its veg-etable sector in the wake of the Russian ban, only to see it rejected by the Euro-pean Commission after waiting for three months.
Competitors in other countries are not bound by EU decisions, and can equally overproduce and cause price pressures EU producers will not be pro-tected from.
The IFA argues that cutting production in some or all European
countries would do little to solve the global over-supply crisis.
“Competitors in other countries – the US, New Zealand, Australia, Argen-tina, Brazil, India – are not bound by EU decisions, and can equally over-produce and cause price pressures EU produc-ers will not be protected from. Also, when mar-kets recover, dairy com-panies in these countries can and will take market share from EU exporters,” Lascurettes wrote.
The IFA opposes “ret-rograde” suggestions to make supply controls mandatory across the EU and calls instead for “tools to combat the effects of volatility”.
Meanwhile, Irish dairy farmer lobby group ICMSA embarked on a lobbying tour in Brus-sels after a meeting of the Council of EU agricul-ture ministers last month. It has called for the EU intervention price to be lifted to the equivalent of 28c/L.
“The volume and supply isn’t correcting itself, and dairy farmers are still trying to run faster on the treadmill,” ICMSA vice president Pat McCor-mack said.
Irish Agricultural Minister Simon Coveney.
FARMERS MARCH ON LONDONAT LEAST 2000 farmers marched in London last month to pressure the Government to do more to address Britain’s agricultural crisis.
Coachloads of farmers arrived at Westminster for a march organised by campaign group Farmers for Action, which wants the Prime Minister to acknowl-edge that there is “a major problem” in the agricul-tural sector.
“Falling prices across the industry are making pro-duction unsustainable. People cannot take this any longer,” said David Handley, a protest organiser and dairy farmer in Monmouth, South Wales.
Low wholesale prices for goods including milk and cereal have caused income to plummet for many UK farmers.
According to Government figures, the average income of dairy farmers will have dropped by 45% in this tax year to £46,500.
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MARKET SNAPSHOT LAMB MARKET TRENDSBEEF MARKET TRENDS
RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
20 MARKETS & TRENDS
Beef & venison prices are reported as gross (before normal levies & charges are deducted). Lamb & mutton prices are reported nett (after levies & charges are deducted).
Me at North Is land S outh Is land
c/kgCWTChange
c/kgLast
We e kChange
c/kgLast
We e k
Lamb - PM 16.0kg n/c 4.68 n/c 4.63
S te e r - P2 300kg -5 5.25 -10 5.10
Bull - M2 300kg -10 5.15 -10 4.70
Ve nison - AP 60kg n/c 7.45 n/c 7.35
$4.5
$5.0
$5.5
$6.0
$6.5
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
North Island 16.0kg M Lamb Price
5yr Ave Last Year This Year
$4.0
$4.5
$5.0
$5.5
$6.0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
South Island 16.0kg M Lamb Price
5yr Ave Last Year This Year
$4.0
$4.5
$5.0
$5.5
$6.0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
North Island 300kg Bull Price
5yr Ave
Last Year
This Year
$3.5
$4.0
$4.5
$5.0
$5.5
$6.0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
South Island 300kg Steer Price
5yr Ave
Last Year
This Year
$6.0
$6.5
$7.0
$7.5
$8.0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
North Island 60kg Stag Price
5yr Ave
Last Year
This Year
$6.0
$6.5
$7.0
$7.5
$8.0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
South Island 60kg Stag Price5yr Ave
Last Year
This Year
BEEF PRICES
c/kgCWT Change Last Week
2 Wks Ago
Last Year
NI P2 Steer - 300kg -5 5.25 5.30 5.30M 2 Bull - 300kg -10 5.15 5.25 5.35P2 Cow - 230kg -15 4.05 4.20 4.40M Cow - 200kg -15 3.95 4.10 4.40
Local Trade - 230kg -10 5.20 5.30 5.20SI P2 Steer - 300kg -10 5.10 5.20 4.80
M 2 Bull - 300kg -10 4.70 4.80 4.65P2 Cow - 230kg -10 3.55 3.65 3.30M Cow - 200kg -10 3.55 3.65 3.30
Local Trade - 230kg -10 5.20 5.30 4.80
Slaughter
Export Market DemandChange Last
Week2 Wks Ago
Last Year 5yr Ave
95CL US$/lb -6 2.07 2.13 2.49 2.25NZ$/kg -3 6.81 6.84 7.39 6.21
Procurement IndicatorChange 2Wks
Ago3 Wks Ago
Last Year 5yr Ave
% Returned NI -2% 77.1% 78.9% 71.08% 71.4%% Returned SI -1% 70.5% 71.6% 62.3% 65.7%
$1.50
$2.00
$2.50
$3.00
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Dem and Indicator - US 95CL Beef
Last Year
This Year
60%
65%
70%
75%
80%
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Pro curement Indicator - South I.
Last Year
This Year
65%
70%
75%
80%
85%
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Pro curement Indicator - North I.
Last Year
This Year
k
10k
20k
30k
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
So uth Island Weekly Cattle Kill
5yr Ave
Last Year
This Year
k
20k
40k
60k
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
No rth Island Weekly Cattle Kill
5yr Ave
Last Year
This Year
LAMB PRICES
c/kgCWTChange Last
Week2 Wks Ago
Last Year
NI Lamb YM - 13.5kg n/c 4.66 4.66 5.01PM - 16.0kg n/c 4.68 4.68 5.03PX - 19.0kg n/c 4.70 4.70 5.05
PH - 22.0kg n/c 4.71 4.71 5.06 M utton M X1 - 21kg n/c 2.50 2.50 3.15SI Lamb YM - 13.5kg n/c 4.63 4.63 4.91
PM - 16.0kg n/c 4.63 4.63 4.93PX - 19.0kg n/c 4.63 4.63 4.95
PH - 22.0kg n/c 4.63 4.63 4.96 M utton M X1 - 21kg n/c 2.23 2.23 2.70
Slaughter
Export Market DemandChange Last
Week2 Wks Ago
Last Year 5yr Ave
UK Leg £/lb n/c 1.55 1.55 1.77 1.94NZ$/kg n/c 7.90 7.90 8.12 8.30
Procurement IndicatorChange 2Wks
Ago3 Wks Ago
Last Year 5yr Ave
% Returned NI -0 .6% 60.8% 61.4% 63.4% 66.8%% Returned SI -0 .6% 58.9% 59.5% 62.2% 65.3%
Venison PricesChange Last
Week2 Wks Ago
Last Year 5yr Ave
NI Stag - 60kg n/c 7.45 7.45 6.35 6.67SI Stag - 60kg n/c 7.35 7.35 6.25 6.71
£1.00
£1.50
£2.00
£2.50
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Dem and Indicator - UK Leg Price
Last Year
This Year
50%
60%
70%
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Pro curement Indicator - South I.
Last Year
This Year
50%
60%
70%
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Pro curement Indicator - North I.
Last Year
This Year
k
100k
200k
300k
400k
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
No rth Island Weekly Lamb Kill
5yr Ave
Last Year
This Year
k
100k
200k
300k
400k
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
So uth Island Weekly Lamb Kill
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NEWS PRICE WATCH
RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
MARKETS & TRENDS 21
BEEF SLAUGHTER: Slaughter prices through the country have fallen recently. Two short weeks, a declining US market and increasing slaughter rates all contributed to manufacturing schedules, and in some cases, prime schedules, decreasing. The dairy cow kill through the South Island is well underway, with processors no-longer having to rely has heavily on schedules to draw numbers out. This meant the South Island cow slaughter price has dropped 25-30c/kg in recent weeks.With the US beef market trending downwards and slaughter rates lifting due to more and more dairy cows being culled, it would be unsurprising to see schedules continue to dip over the coming weeks.
STORE BEEF: Store cattle markets through the North Island have been fairly strong lately. The latest weaner fairs have resulted in impressive returns for sellers. Steers 250-290kg have generally been making $3.60-3.80/kg. Dry conditions through the South Island had been putting a dampener on store prices, but recent rainfall gave the market a bit more of a kick. Weanersteers at the Blenheim sale made $3.70-3.90/kg thanks to strong buying power from the North Island. The fresh rain should mean steady demand for store stock over the coming weeks, though weaner prices are expected to
ease to slightly more realistic levels.
INTERNATIONAL BEEF: Returns on imported beef in the US have fallen as the market prepares itself for the extra volumes of cow meat which will come on stream soon. US imported 90CL cow dipped 18c/lb to US$1.85/lb over a three week period. Imported 95CL bull fared a little better, easing 13c/lb to US$2.07/lb. The Chinese beef market remains in a similar state that it’s been in since the end of last year. Cheap South American beef is continuing to pour into the Chinese market, but solid demand is keeping the market steady.
SHEEP: Processors through the South Island have been reasonably busy as the dry conditions were drawing plenty of lambs to slaughter. Some have reported wait times of up to two weeks. Recent rainfall through the island may help slow numbers down, but cool temperatures may limit grass growth for the time being. Slaughter prices in both islands are largely unchanged on a fortnight ago. Store lambs are averaging $2.20/kg through the paddock through both the North Island and South Island for 28kg types. There’s a 5c/kg discount for those around 32kg.
INTERNATIONAL SHEEP: Overseas lamb markets are looking more positive than was the case a couple weeks ago. Demand out of the Middle East is building as they have now worked their way through most of their
backlogs of inventories. This should stimulate better prices out of China as well. The US market is in a relatively decent state, though the large volumes of Australian lamb flowing in has limited improvements so far. Both continental Europe and the UK are unchanged.
WOOL PRICE WATCH Overseas Wool Price Indicators
Indicators in NZ$ Change 23-Mar 17-Mar Last Year Indicators in US$/kg Change 23-Mar 17-Mar Last
YearCoarse Xbred -5 5.69 5.74 4.78 Coarse Xbred -3 3.84 3.87 3.69
Fine Xbred -18 5.78 5.96 5.26 Fine Xbred -11 3.90 4.02 4.15
Lamb -9 6.41 6.50 6.25 Lamb -5 4.33 4.38 4.87
Mid Micron - - - - Mid Micron - - - -
450
550
650
750
850
Mar May Jul Sep Nov Jan
Wool Indicator Trends
CXI FXI LI
300
350
400
450
Oct Dec Feb Apr Jun Aug
Coarse Xbred Indictor in US$
Last Year
This Year
450
500
550
600
650
Oct Dec Feb Apr Jun Aug
Coarse Xbred Indicator
Last YearThis Year
350
400
450
500
550
600
Mar May Jul Sep Nov Jan
Wool Indicator TrendsCXI FXI LI
MOH1H11H1H111
OH1H1H1H1H1
OH1H1H1HHHH
MOHH
MOHH
MOH
MOH
MOH
MOH
MOHH
MOH
OH
OH
MOH
MOH
MOH
OH
OH
MOH
MOH
OOMOO
MOOOOOO
MOO
MO
MO
MOO
MO
MO
MMMMMMMM418/
418/
418/
418//
418/
418/18/
418/
418/
418/8/////
418/
418/
418/
41818888884444444444RN/H
RN/H
RN/H
RN/H
RN/H
RN/H
RN/HHHH
RN/H
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RN/HN/H
RN/H
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RNNNRNRNRRRR
PPPPPPPPPPPPP
There is a way through it DepressionFeeling down in response to diffi cult situations is pretty normal. But when life has no joy
or pleasure for more than two weeks, this could be a sign of depression. You’re not alone.One in six New Zealanders will experience depression at some time in their life. Understanding more about depression can help you fi nd a way through.Join JK at depression.org.nz, or call the Depression Helpline 0800 111 757. depression.org.nz/rural
RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
22 AGRIBUSINESS
Cloud-based technology keeps records afloatDON’T BE afraid of change; it’s the reason your phone isn’t still attached to the wall by a tangled length of wire.
So says Andy Lowe, chief executive of farm management software provider Agrimap, an exhibitor at the East Coast Farming with Technology Expo to be held in Wairoa on April 13-14.
“Farming is tough – long hours, labour shortages, rising costs and fall-ing prices. We all know this. It’s hap-pening across the world, not just on the East Coast,” Lowe says. As a New Zea-land-based but global company, we owe it NZ farmers to help them deal with these challenges.
Lowe says Agrimap’s presence at the expo will show people that adopt-ing innovation is easy. You don’t even need to know how to use a computer.
“Apps are the way of the future, and the faster you get on board the sooner you’ll reap the benefits.”
Cloud-based technology such as Agrimap is one of the key interest areas
covered at the two-day expo designed to bring innovation and technology to the doorstep of East Coast farmers.
Gretchen King from Agrecord said it uses technology to replace the pen and paper operations of old by replicat-ing preferred systems and reproducing them online.
“Not only does this mean that infor-mation can’t get misplaced, soggy or simply relegated to the ‘too hard basket’, but it also means that the information is able to be captured at the touch of a button and stored some-where central so that everyone involved can access and contribute to it.”
Agrecord will demonstrate its pro-gramme Cloud Farmer, which cap-tures everything from stock records to weekly planning details. They’ve also hinted at a new offline app described as being “shepherd proof ”.
“If farmers are not trying to con-stantly refine and improve the way they run their business, then they’re going
to be left behind. Embrace technology while you can, because like it or not it’s quickly becoming the norm.”
Farm advisory businesses are also pushing out cloud-based technology to clients.
BDO Gisborne’s Charles Rau said his firm will demonstrate tools and knowledge that make a significant dif-ference to farming.
“It is important that farmers are aware of what is available in technol-ogy and support, and that they have
resources available to help them. Qual-ity and up-to-date systems are impor-tant to the degree that they provide quality information that help farmers in their decision making. Infrastruc-ture and farming practice aside, our role is support and strategy; technol-ogy helps us have the right conversa-tions with our clients.”
The accountancy firm says the big-gest change in their sector is that tech-nology has enabled them to move from a compliance role to an advisory role.
Chris Guillemot, principal and agribusiness specialist of Hawke’s Bay accounting and advisory firm Crowe Horwath said another key aspect of the increasing role of cloud-based technol-ogy was the changing demographics of farmers.
“The next-generation owner has more of an appetite to use and embrace the new technologies,” he says.
“The uptake in the use of technology on farm is increasing exponentially and we, as key advisors, need to be aware of the issues and options in the market for clients.
“With our relationships across the industry, region and a wide range of clients, the Expo provides the perfect setting for us to share our knowledge in this area and also to gain an under-standing of the issues in the East Coast sheep and beef industry.”
For more information, including ticket sales and how to register as an exhibitor, visit: www.eastcoastexpo.co.nz
Agrecord’s Gretchen King will be demonstrating the company’s Cloud Farmer programme at the Expo.
EE
C38
86_R
N
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
AGRIBUSINESS 23
Russell Taylor
EVERYONE IS watching global currency, says Russell Taylor, president, Interna-tional Wood Markets Group.
The nature of global cur-rency has changed since 2004. Everyone has had a currency devaluation and now most countries are in a narrow band, Taylor told the recent ForestWood 2016 conference in Auckland.
New Zealand had a wider currency advantage for a while, now it is narrowing, he said.
“So it is all coming back to almost where we started. We can’t really give away anymore in currency; we’ve got to work hard in the market,” he said.
In the global economies the organisation tracks, every-thing is relatively flat.
“The global economies are holding but there is some vulnerability here and there,” he says. “China is flat and certain segments are up and down.”
But the big US wood market has been growing at 5%. That is keeping a lot of the supply inside North America, taking up the log exports and lumber exports.
Russia, US and Canada have the greatest impact on the wood market in terms of production. China and India are the countries with the deficits so they need imports.
Canada’s timber harvest is falling markedly. British Columbia has been losing 20% since 2005 because of dis-eased trees. Quebec has been losing 35% since 2004. A Canadian himself, Taylor said Canada’s industry will be a lot smaller.
Many other countries also have restraints on supply, logistics and environment.
But foreign currency fluctuations are changing the dynamics.
“If I gave you this presentation say two and a half to three years ago I would have been saying Russia’s cost structure is out of control, their infrastructure is terrible, they can’t find workers… forget about Russia, they’ve got nowhere to go,” he said.
“Today it is quite different. The devaluation of the ruble has been a game changer – it has changed everything.
“Even though the export pacts are still in place and some of the WTO regulations are in there, they are able now to reinvest in their industry because they are making money.
“A big rebound is occurring. The government has well over 100 prairie investment projects. A lot were side-tracked for a while because of the economics of doing business in Russia but now some are being dusted off and coming back into place. That will result in more cap-ital investment in Russia for processing all different prod-ucts.”
He keeps hearing rumours of a possible reduction in the export sanctions against Russia. He has heard it three different times from three different people.
“That would be a negative factor for NZ log exports because you would have a cheaper competitor,” he said.
“The Russian silviculture programme is allowing an immediate increase in the allowable annual harvest in some regions of about 20%.”
In China the construction slowdown is slowing the demand for timber but the value added sectors such as fur-niture are growing. More pine is being used in that sector.
Although there is a slowdown now, there will be increases in the need for imported logs and sawn wood to China.
RATIONALISATION OF the sawmill industry will continue, says Marty Verry, chief execu-tive of Red Stag Timber, which is building a $60m ‘supermill’ at Rotorua.
Verry told the ForestWood conference that data analysis showed another 16 mills will close in the next six years – 12 small mills, four medium and one or two larger mills. He was not sure how that played into the 2022
sector strategy of doubling forest and wood production exports (to $12 billion). The trend line of a declining number of mills was well established, but they could still produce more timber and be profitable.
“It is just the story of automa-tion and consolidation happening around the world,” he said.
“Some of the risk areas include a drop in building consents – from 2018 they are
predicting a big drop off.” Some struggling sawmills could get supported if they were part of a forest or bigger operation.
Rapid technology change and rapid uptake of information and technology will be the trend.
“You will see fewer mills…. Those that are surviving would have invested heavily; they will be very competitive and highly auto-mated and productive.”
It is not unique to New
Zealand: Australian data shows the same consolidation story – sawmills getting larger and more automated.
Since 2006-07 there has been a significant fall in the number of sawmills in Australia, hard-wood sawmills falling by 60% and softwood by 25%. Over the past decade their domestic soft-wood industry has become much more capital intensive and larger in scale.
MORE CUTS LOOMING
PAM TIPA
Global challenges for forestry industry
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24 OPINION
THE HOUND
EDNA
Want to share your opinion or gossip with the Hound?
Send your emails to: [email protected]
EDITORIAL
RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
Farmer friendly?YOUR OLD mate was flabber-gasted at the sheer political gall of Labour and the Greens in their latter-day ‘concern for farmers’ in the wake of the recent drop in dairy payout. MPs from both parties, saying they were worried about farmers, tried to blame the Government for the drop in global dairy prices or sought to make Fonterra pay farmers more or to force banks to carry bad loans. Your canine crusader reckons farmers might take these ‘concerns’ a little more seriously when Green MPs stop labelling farmers polluters and water thieves and their Labour mates stop wanting to hit the farming sector with new green-house gas taxes, stop making claims about farmers deliber-ately avoiding paying tax and cease calls to whack the sector with even more costs.
PR disastersTHE HOUND reckons Fonterra hardly needs any more reputa-tional damage of late, but its latest PR disasters are really major own-goals. The decision by the dairy co-op to extend the time it takes to pay suppliers, from 30 to 90 days, is a terrible, terrible look. Fonter-ra’s behaviour towards the firms it engages is, as one commen-tator rightly suggested, the sort of behaviour you’d expect from Tony Soprano. Here’s a little PR advice for the milk barons at gumboot castle – this is not good form, capice? And here’s another bit of advice: don’t put overpaid, under-prepared exec-utives in front of the media to defend the indefensible. The performance of chief financial officer Lukas Para-cavini on television with Paul Henry last month was such an unmitigated disaster it will no doubt be used for PR training of corporate big-wigs in what not to do.
Risky?YOUR OLD mate notes that the first group of prisoners from Rimutaka Prison’s new farm skills course graduated early last month. Included was an introduction to farm skills (fencing) course which, according to prison officials, gives graduates the opportunity to gain employment wherever a fencing contractor is working. Now the Hound is all for giving people a second chance, but he was some-what surprised that prisoners are being taught to fence in prison. By fencing this does not mean selling off stolen goods (which may have got many of the inmates incar-cerated in the first place) or the Olympic sport – but actual fencing. As mate of the Hound asked: is it not a bit risky teaching blokes who are supposed to be kept behind a fence how to construct and conversely destruct said fence?
InterestingTHE HOUND notes that Fonter-ra’s head of people, culture and safety, Maury Leyland, left the co-op at the end of the month, citing personal reasons. Given the way Fonterra has being performing in the public eye lately no one could blame the 11 year veteran for leaving. However, it’s been revealed there is a sound ‘personal reason’ underpinning her decision to quit. Apparently, Leyland is now in a relationship with Synlait Milk chief executive John Penno, a fact she had disclosed to Fonterra. But as a mate of your canine crusader opined, ‘it puts an interesting spin on the term sleeping with the enemy’.
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“Find out where they live – we might be able to scrounge some parts!”
Time to goTHE RESULTS of the remit votes at Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s recent annual meeting must surely be the final nail in the coffin of the meat sector ginger group Meat Industry Excel-lence (MIE).
The two remits put up by MIE at the BLNZ meeting – one to fund the lobby group and the other to replace the two meat processor appointees to BLNZ board with MIE members – both failed to garner any more than 25% sup-port.
BLNZ chair James Parsons says it’s time for the sheep and beef sector to pull together and focus on the future. MIE won’t like this mes-sage, but he is actually right.
There is no doubt, as Parsons has also noted, that MIE is made up of passionate and commit-ted farmers who are pushing for a better sector. However, despite this passion and commit-ment, they have not succeeded in convincing the majority of red meat producers to support them or their cause.
MIE’s Pathways report – which, among other things, strongly promoted the Newco model and merger of Silver Fern Farms and Alliance Group – was firmly rejected when SFF farmer shareholders overwhelmingly voted in favour of the merger with Chinese investor Shanghai Maling.
After this vote, many of the lobby group’s leaders and members recognised they had lost the battle and decided to move on.
MIE’s claims that the votes for both the SFF decision and BLNZ remits are somehow void due to the low turnout of farmers who actually cast their ballots is ridiculous and facile. That’s democracy, and if farmers didn’t bother to vote – then so be it. It would be like the Government dismissing the result of the recent flag referen-dum because fewer than 100% of New Zealand-ers bothered to cast their votes.
MIE cannot realistically complain that it has not had financial support from BLNZ – even if it was given begrudgingly.
In all, BLNZ has provided around $297,000 to the group. There was $40,000 for farmer awareness meetings when it first started. In April 2014 another $20,000 was provided for MIE’s business plan and funding application and then, in July 2014, another $237,000 for its Pathways Report and communications strat-egy.
MIE has had a fair crack and it is time the group moved on. Continuing to argue it cause and throw rocks at the sector from the side-lines will only end up seeing its legacy further tarnished.
RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
OPINION 25
JACQUELINE ROWARTH discusses marketing, costs, homeopathic treatment and nutrients situation in organic farming (March 15, p.26).
The move to organic management from a chemically oriented one is a paradigm shift. Five years is not long to build resilience, health and diversity back into depleted and nutrient poor soil. Rodale (2011) found that the long term resilience of organic farms in weather extremes outstripped other farming systems and the rich organic matter maintained nutrient levels.
The soils also absorbed and held water, creating a stable environment for plant growth. In fact in four out of five drought years organically grown corn yields were higher that corn grown conventionally.
Rowarth also states that homeopathic remedies have not been shown to be effective in mastitis. I would like to refute this. I have regularly used homeopathic remedies most effectively for mastitis, this is supported by many studies conducted on the use of homeopathy in cows, onfarm and clinical. One outstanding
MOVE TO ORGANICS PARADIGM SHIFT
ag twitsRural News’ irreverent and hypothetical look at what’s happening in the farming world
Top Bleats view all
@jmccarthymie: I’m absolutely mystified how both MIE’s remits at this year’s BLNZ annual meeting failed to gain farmer support. Quite clearly more than 76% of sheep and beef farmers in this country are stupid, irre-sponsible, foolish, fatuous, dim and brainless. # ungracious #insolent #bastards
@jparsonsblnz: I am not one to gloat, but in your face MIE! Flag change support was more than double that for both your remits at our annual meeting and it still lost. So take a hint, fold up your tent and go away. #giveitup
@winstonfirstandlast: Thankfully the majority of voters – like me – believe in a New Zealand that is firmly tied to the 1950s: with unbreakable bonds to Mother Britain, septuagenarian politicians running the show, five-day-a-week trading and a whites-only im-migration policy. #thegoodolddays #rulebrit-ainia #godsavethequeen
@johnkeypm: At the end of the day, my efforts to change the flag flagged. But hey, the Blackcaps are doing well in the T20 World Cup and there’s not a Union Jack in sight on their uniforms. #whenlosingiswinning
@littleandylabour: I blame John Key for the banks foreclosing on bad loans, Fonterra not paying at least $8/kgMS and the utter rejection of his new flag. Under a Labour government, banks will not charge interest, Fonterra’s pay-out will average $50 and we’ll change the flag to one everybody loves. #mydreams
@drbillfeds: I didn’t realise Hawkes Bay was so full of smelly hippies who support a GM-free zone; obviously they have a similar scientific fantasy to anti-fluoride and anti-immunisation nutjobs. #losers
@tspieringsfonterra: Jeesh itshs tough at the top, eshpecially when farmhers and ohthers give me suhch a hard timesh for the falling dairy payhoutsh. It makesh the $5 millionsh I earnsh a year hardly worthsh it -- almosht. #timeforapayrise
@jwilsonfonterra: Let me assure farmers things will get better: the sun will come up tomorrow, one day it will rain in sunny South-ern California and we’re 99.999% confident Christmas will happen again this year. In the meantime, we have no idea what is going on with milk prices. #yourguessisasgoodasmine
@dcoullshc: Hi @jwilsonfonterra can I just say what a wonderful job you, your board and executive are doing on behalf of Fonterra shareholders. Thanks to all your efforts none of us will be paying tax this year! Love your work. #lapdog #yapyap
homeopathic study done in India on mastitis in cows by veterinarian Drs Varshney and Naresh (2005) found that the overall effectiveness of homeopathic combination medicine in the treatment of acute non-fibrosed mastitis was 86.6% with a mean recovery period of 7.7 days (range 3–28) and total cost of therapy
of $5.00. A German study by Dr
Werner (2010) showed that homeopathic remedies are significantly more effective than placebo and as effective as antibiotics and the withholding period is only for the time the cow is undergoing treatment.
Farmers can be shown how to farm without pesticides, fertilisers,
ionising radiation animal hormones and antibiotics; certification gives consumers the assurance that what they are buying is grown to organic standards.
Organic certification and standards cannot be deleted to assuage marketing jingo. Claire Bleakley RD3Featherston
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
26 OPINION
Water gives life to NZ’s economyMUCH MEDIA debate has arisen recently on whether new irrigation schemes are necessary in the wake of the dairy downturn.
What the dairy indus-try doesn’t need at the moment is to be kicked when it’s down; the debate has brought to light a need for Irriga-tion NZ to better foster relationships and pro-mote understanding of modern irrigation across the board.
Let’s start with the facts: in NZ water is plen-tiful. We average 145 mil-lion litres per person in NZ compared with 82 in Canada, 22 in Austra-lia, nine in the US, two in China and two in the UK. We are water rich but are yet to make the most of this potential.
The issue is harness-
ing the resource. We need water in the right place at the right time. Water storage projects that in part provide for irrigation development are the solu-tion to this problem. The benefits for NZ Inc are huge if we better harvest and distribute just a small percentage of our water resource. Currently 98.2% of the water that falls as rain and snow makes it out to sea.
Using only 1.8% of our water for irrigated farms contributes between $2.2 billion and $3b to NZ’s economy, and double this in terms of the benefits to the wider community from adding value to irri-gated produce. For exam-ple, NZ wouldn’t have a wine industry without irrigation.
Irrigated agricul-ture underpins many of the provincial econo-mies on the East Coast.
Sun-parched towns like Hastings, Blenheim, Ash-burton, Timaru, Oamaru, Cromwell and Alexan-dra are now green, vibrant and resilient.
But irrigation is about far more than increas-ing production; it is also an insurance against drought. Climate mod-elling suggests droughts will become increasingly common in many parts of the country includ-ing some areas that have a limited history of water storage and irrigation – Northland, Manawatu and Bay of Plenty. This puts farming and the viability of local and regional econ-omies at risk.
Certainty about water means farmers can confi-dently plan for the future and are more able to cope with market fluctuation and changing weather patterns.
Another point to be
disputed is that irriga-tion makes for high cost production – it is unaf-fordable in the current commodity downturn. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Well-run irrigated dairy farmers have some of the lowest production costs per unit of production.
Colin Glass, chief executive of Dairy Holdings, says that the cost of production in Canterbury – compared to dryland farming in the South Island – is generally lower because of the extra grass production and corresponding increased milk solids production that comes from irrigation.
Getting through tough times requires produc-ing more from less – increasing production whilst reducing operating costs. Tough times breed attention to detail and
ANDREW CURTIS
innovation. The result-ing efficiency gains also create wins for the envi-ronment.
What people are fre-quently missing in all the commentary on the dairy downturn is the need to maintain production, not just cut costs. Irrigation does just that: it maintains production.
It’s also good to remember irrigation in the regions supports far more than just dairy. The reality is that dairy accounts for about 50% of the irrigated area in NZ, with 25% relating to sheep and beef finishing and the remainder going into hor-ticulture, arable and wine-growing. A reliable supply of water is the only way to diversify production.
So what about the environment and water quality? All the new
and proposed schemes address environmen-tal challenges that have arisen over time, includ-ing inherited water qual-ity concerns as a result of increased land use and general population growth in urban centres.
There are a grow-ing number of exam-ples where irrigators have helped to restore environmental legacy issues: Wakakihi stream – Morven Glenavy Ikawai Irrigation; Pahau stream – Amuri Irrigation; and Waiareka Creek – North Otago Irrigation Com-pany.
Irrigators have also led the way in adopt-ing audited environmen-tal farm plans. These plans create bottom lines for farm environmen-tal performance, helping irrigators continuously
improve performance and be accountable for their actions.
The benefits for large-scale irrigation schemes are unanimously recognised; overseas irrigation development and water storage projects are employed by governments to create jobs and stimulate business growth.
Studies such as at Opuha have shown that with irrigation comes the next generation of innova-tive farmers and poor per-formers exit.
We need to continue to take a long-term view to ensure the best use of our water resources, while maximising the advan-tages for each regional community and looking after our environment. • Andrew Curtis is chief executive of Irrigation NZ.
RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
OPINION 27Sometimes change is necessary
IT’S EASY easy when you’re running a business that ticks over OK, to keep with the status quo.
‘If she ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ holds true in many instances. But sometimes things can creep up from behind and bite you, par-ticularly when it comes to technology.
It can take a lost client, a major change in the industry or a downturn in circumstances for us to look around at what others may be doing dif-ferently and, though it may hurt to say it, they may be doing better.
Some farmers have found the saying ‘you’ve got to spend some to gain some’ to be true – espe-cially when it comes to the internet.
The internet can give you access to global mar-kets and keep you up with the play on rural develop-ments locally and around the world. And there are many apps and pro-grammes you can use onfarm to enhance soil composition, get more and better milk from your herd, monitor yield, live-stream conferences, etc.
Rezare Systems ana-lyst Graeme Ogle reported recently that soon farm-ers will be able to house all farm data in one place via cloud computing.
“Fast broadband removes many of the con-straints developers have traditionally contended
with. It enables a design solution that is available anywhere, anytime,” he explained.
“A farmer could come in at night and see the fer-tiliser already recorded on his farm map because the spreader has loaded the GPS co-ordinates. He could then view his nutri-ent budget and order the spring fertiliser. He could view his feed wedge which had uploaded his pasture cover measurements and nitrogen applications. It would have the latest pas-ture growth prediction and he could consider purchasing supplemen-tary feed or nitrogen. This would simply require clicking through to the online store.
“At the moment, farm-ers need to spend an enor-mous amount of time updating the software, getting all the parameters right, getting informa-tion from onfarm devices and off-farm data sources before they can even look at the kind of scenarios the software is designed to take them through.”
So, if you’re in an inter-net blind spot, and it’s not looking like the Gov-ernment’s Rural Broad-band Initiative is going to help you out any time soon, there are other options. The Govern-ment hopes 86% of rural households and business will have access to high-speed internet by the time the new cell towers and the extended fibre net-work are rolled out. That’s
PENNY HARTILLa huge improvement, but it does leave 14% of the countryside out in the cold.
Satellite technology reaches every part of New Zealand. You’ll wait no longer than 15 working days for instal-lation and independent testing shows it consis-tently outperforms rural ADSL during peak time
and off peak. Wireless Nation oper-
ates New Zealand’s satel-lite broadband for rural regions. Using the Optus satellite network which provides speeds that enable live streaming, the connection is robust and can host a number of digi-tal users simultaneously.
Technology is one of those things where ‘you
don’t know what you don’t know’. There are many initiatives around now that could save you time and a lot of money. So it can pay to keep nimble, and spend some time looking at what the right solution is for your situation. • Penny Hartill is a communications advisor to Wireless Nation
There are many apps and programs that can be used to help farmers run their business.
IN BRIEF
A HIT OUT FOR FARMERSFOR FARMERS in the lower North Island, some stress relief will be available on Tuesday May 17.
That’s the day of the annual farmers’ golf tournament, again being held at the Rangitikei golf course, near Bulls.
The event has proved extremely popular with farmers and sponsors – including Rural News – as a great fun day out with excellent prizes at stake.
The tournament has run for nearly 50 years and attracts about 120 players.
Registration on the day is at 10am. Anyone interested in playing in or sponsoring the event – or both – should contact Geoff Ingram on 06 3231277.
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
28 MANAGEMENT
Velvetleaf search intensifies
■ Velvetleaf is an annual broad-leaved herb that grows between 1 and 2.5m tall.
■ It has buttery-yellow flowers about 3cm across. It flowers from spring through autumn.
■ Leaves are large and heart-shaped and are velvety to the touch.
■ The plant has distinctive seedpods with 12 to 15 segments in a cup-like ring. Each seedpod is about 2.5cm in diameter.
■ All farmers who have planted fodder beet seed should check their crops carefully
for signs of velvetleaf. Those who have planted Kyros or Bangor varieties should be particularly vigilant. Potentially contaminated seed has been sold all around New Zealand.
■ For farmers who have reported suspected velvetleaf to MPI and are concerned about plants seeding while they are waiting on the velvetleaf response team field visit, the following “bag it – bend it” actions could help reduce the risk of seed fall:
■ If seed heads are present on the plant, carefully place a large bag
(like a fertiliser bag or sack or similar) over the seed capsules and flowers on the plant and tie the bag tightly around the stem. It is important to make sure all seed heads are contained within the bag.
■ The velvetleaf plant should then be bent in half so that seeds cannot escape out of the neck of the bag. The plant should remain in the ground until MPI field staff visit.
■ Sightings of this aggressive weed should be reported immediately to MPI on 0800 80 99 66.
WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR
MPI, PRIMARY sector industry groups and regional councils are step-ping up the search for agricultural weed vel-vetleaf in a bid to contain it in existing locations and halt its spread.
MPI plants and envi-ronment surveillance manager Mark Bullians says while velvetleaf may
sound pretty, it’s anything but. In other countries where it is established it has significant impacts on crop production.
“It is an invasive weed that is successful at com-peting with crops for nutrients, space and water,” Bullians says. “Right now, we’re still working to locate out-
breaks and remove them from the ground, ideally before seed drops.”
MPI’s main message about the pest is for farm-ers who have planted fodder beet seed.
“Check your fodder beet crops and if you believe you have found this weed, photograph any plants, mark the loca-
tions so they can be easily found again and call us on the free hotline 0800 80 99 66.
“We will arrange for technical experts to come and remove velvetleaf plants. Do not attempt to remove them yourself as this risks spreading the seed.”
Bullian says there is good advice for farmers on MPI’s website.
“There has been a good response to our call for sightings. Currently velvetleaf has been confirmed on 50 properties nationally. Some weed has been found in most regions, but Canterbury has the most cases.”
The common denom-inator in all infestations
to date is the planting of imported fodder beet seed. Two varieties in particular are implicated -- Kyros and Bangor – although MPI is consid-ering the possibility that other varieties could be involved.
“We are also investi-gating how the contami-nated fodder beet seeds could have entered New Zealand. We know that the affected imported fodder beet seed consign-ments met NZ’s import-ing requirements and
were certified by the exporting country. MPI is currently reviewing the import requirements for seed.”
MPI says it is not just relying on farmers reporting finds. It is working with regional councils and the seed industry to trace where potentially contaminated seed was sold and inspect those properties for the presence of the weed.
While the search con-tinues, work is underway on the best options for controlling this pest.
“This is not a situation the MPI is planning to walk away from,” Bullians says. “Managing this pest will require a sustained combined effort over many years.”
Velvetleaf is identified by its bright yellow flowers and heart-shaped leaves.
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
30 MANAGEMENT
Five hundred years in the planning
LIKE A WOF FOR THE FARMROD LAMB and Hemi Dawson were stoked for the iwi at the news it was an Ahuwhenua finalist.
“It shows we’re doing the right things,” Lamb told Rural News.
Both viewed the judging process like a warrant of fitness on
the business, with the judges being brutal and insisting on looking at every facet of the farm.
They recommend any Maori farmers to try for the cup, saying they will be a better farmer because of it. Which brings it back
to the Ngai Tahu motto: Mo tatou, a, mo ka uri ake nui (for us and our children after us).
The observer can see that Ngai Tahu Farming has two great kaitiaki in Rod Lamb and Hemi Dawson.
Five hundred years is a long time, but for Ngai Tahu Farming it’s just the beginning – they are working to a 500 year business plan for the iwi. Richard Cosgrove reports.
THIS FORETHOUGHT and planning helped two of the iwi’s dairy farms into the finals of the BNZ Ahuwhenua Maori Excellence in Farming Awards. The farms are Maungatere Farm man-aged by Hemi Dawson and Te Ahu Patiki managed by Rod Lamb.
It’s the first time in the 83-year history of the awards that a South Island farm has made it to the finals, and this year there are two – Ngai Tahu Farming and the Tahu a
Tao farm in Rakaia. Tewi Trust in Waikato is the third finalist.
Maungatere and Te Ahu Patiki are neighbours, near Oxford, in what was once the Eyrewell Forest, which the iwi lost in dubious circumstances – the Kemp Purchase of 1848, which saw about 8 million ha sold for £2000.
Maori developed agriculture to sustain a population and for commerce; North Canterbury was a rainforest which
capitalised the country. Maori were generally excluded from pastoral farming so the dairy farms give the tribe the opportunity to restore its mana.
Following the Ngai Tahu Settlement in 1998, the iwi were allowed to buy Crown assets. Ngai Tahu chose to buy Crown Forestry License land throughout the South Island.
In 2000, Ngai Tahu Property bought the
TO PAGE 31
For Ngai Tahu Farming’s Rod Lamb (right), mentoring his young farm workers and seeing them grow is one of the best parts of the job.
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
MANAGEMENT 31
Standards set high and obtainedHEMI DAWSON says Ngai Tahu Farming have to set the standard everyone aspires to because their mana is at stake.
He says Maori have to be the strongest voice for the environment; Ngai Tahu Farming must not contribute to the degradation of waterways. He believes this will change the general population’s perception of farming and then they can engage the population so they can be part of the process.
On each farm there is a mana whenua working party involved in governance and they hold you accountable, Dawson said. This imposes stricter guidelines for Dawson and Lamb than on many other farms.
Health and safety are prominent: all staff must wear hi-vis vests and everyday there is a start-up health and safety meeting on each farm.
The hapu also put conditions on how the farms operate; for instance, no palm kernel extract, no dead-cow holes, water use must be optimised and each farm must forge sustainability.
Dawson describes himself as an instinctive farmer; he keeps his eyes open and makes sure he has his finger on the pulse of his farm.
He manages 250 effective ha and milks 900 cows. His initiatives on the farm include planting 21,000 native trees and he has cut nitrogen use 100 units lower than the hapu stipulated.
Every dollar not spent adds to the bottom line, so Dawson tries to make the best of money spent. He says the requirement to satisfy iwi expectations is more of a challenge than would rise in a regional council because their fiercest critics come from within the tribe.
Rod Lamb joined Ngai Tahu Farming in July 2015 when the farm was fairly new, with 350 effective ha and 1050 cows. Lamb is not your normal farm manager: he had played a corporate ‘game’ before and run multiple farms. He joined Ngai Tahu Farming because it was the same, but different.
He enjoys being a mentor more than a manager; he doesn’t put himself out there, and instead will push one of his workers out in front to challenge him. He enjoys passing on knowledge, making them learn and getting the staff to tell him what they are doing on the farm.
He is heavily involved in the Whenua Kura programme Ngai Tahu has set up as an agricultural school. The iwi recently bought the nearby Eyrewell lodge to house stu-dents.
Eyrewell Forest and as forestry licenses have expired Ngai Tahu Farming has converted the land to pasture.
Around 8500ha are being converted; seven farms now operate and there will be six more. One important benefit of the conversion is that it has secured water rights
that will give iwi options in the future.
Until July 2015, Ngai Tahu Farming was a part of Ngai Tahu Property; now it is a standalone business. “The Ahuwhenua awards are an opportunity to highlight our new identity, and by entering the awards we hope to showcase Maori achievement in farming,”
chief executive Andrew Priest says.
Ngai Tahu Farming makes up about 12% of the iwi’s holdings and it needs to make money to ensure its future.
The iwi’s motto is “for us and our children after us”, translated by Dawson as “no point in building empire when your people are sleeping in the
basement”.Lamb and Dawson
subscribe to Ngai Tahu Farming’s quadruple bottom-line – four guidelines for all decisions on the farm:
• Social: building a community and develop-ing the people with educa-tion as the key.
• Economic: assessing whether the company is
growing the ability of the land to support life.
• Environment: look-ing after the land, not exploiting it and enhanc-ing it to leave it in a better state.
• Cultural: identify who we are and how that affects the farm; we are the kaitiaki of the land and must treat everything with respect.
FROM PAGE 30
500 years in the planning
Ngai Tahu Farming’s Hemi Dawson, pictured here with his three sons, says it’s all for the next generation.
0025 OPS Disease_Chris-Beef (280x187)_FAmm.indd 1 30/09/15 2:27 pm
RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
February or earlier, to allow social structures to settle down before mating begins in late March/early April.
Des Ford, a member of the Southland Advance Party, gets spiker stags running with the R2 hinds as early as January to help stimulate oestrus as they reach puberty. He also
works to get the young hinds over the recom-mended target weights by a comfortable margin in time for their first mating.
Flint says the use of single sires or multiple sires is OK, but it’s important to get the ratios right.
“If you are using spiker stags, there should be no more than 10 R2 hinds per stag. With older stags the ratio can be higher.
“In a multiple-sire mating mob it is prefer-able to have at least three stags. This ensures that if two stags spend a lot of time fighting, the third still has the opportunity to mate the hinds.
“In single-sire mating mobs it is always advisable to use a back-up stag, put in at least 18 days before the planned end of mating. Infertility can occur in stags and it is difficult to detect during the breeding period.
“The question is whether a late fawn is better than no fawn. If no fawns are wanted after Christmas, stag changeover should be on April 16 and stags removed on May 5 (straight red, earlier for hybrids).”
Fawn survival is another component to reproductive success.
Kiri Rupert, who farms at Peel Forest, South Canterbury, is trialling the use of longer pasture covers in the fawning
paddock. The objective is to give better cover for the fawns to hide in and help improve fawn survival from the R2 hinds. Initial results have been promising.
Manawatu farmer Tony Gray, who supplies Firstlight Venison, has started breeding his own replacements and has
been preparing a mob of 47 R2 hinds, paying attention to liveweights. All things being equal, he says, “if we get all of the R2s over 100kg by mating, we should get at least 90% in fawn.”
Having a settled mob is also important and the two Firstlight stags that are mating the R2 hinds have been running with the mob since they arrived on the farm in December.
“They’re very used to each other by now,” he says.
About four years ago Ken and Steph Norman learned the hard way to keep close tabs on their first fawners when the mob didn’t keep up to their target weights and a poor breeding season followed. The couple farm sheep, bulls and deer near Pahiatua in a summer safe area, and have been taking advantage of the plentiful grass to get hind weights where they need to be.
Last year they achieved 96.5% scanning in their R2 mob, alongside 97.5% for the mixed age hinds, an excellent outcome on both counts.
Ken Norman says ensuring reproductive success with R2 hinds takes care, “but it’s not rocket science”.
Advance Parties are jointly funded by Deer Industry NZ and the Ministry for Primary Industries Sustainable Farming Fund.
32 MANAGEMENTFocus on more fawns from young hindsAS AUTUMN days shorten, many deer farmers are paying special attention to their rising two-year-old (R2) hinds – the first fawners.
Getting improved conception rates in these younger animals is a focus for many farmers in the Advance Party programme that
veterinarian Pania Flint facilitates for Deer Industry NZ. The Advance Parties are teams of eight-ten deer farms that work together to improve productivity on each farm.
“High conception rates can be harder to achieve in R2 than mature hinds. Low rates are a lost opportunity and a drain
on productivity. Also, by having high conception and fawning rates among your R2 hinds you can accelerate genetic progress,” Flint says.
“One of the most important factors is feed-ing the R2s well so they achieve target weights,” she says. “To reach puberty in time, they need
to be treated as priority stock throughout their first 18 months of life. They need to have a body condition score of 3.5 and be at least 75-80% of their mature weight at mating.”
The actual weight in kilograms will vary depending on the hinds’ genetic makeup, but a typ-ical large red hind that
matures to 125–130kg will need to be at least 93kg and preferably about 100kg to get pregnant, Flint says.
The other big influence on reproductive success with R2 hinds is behavioural. Flint says young hinds should be sorted into mating groups and stags introduced in
Pahiatua farmers Ken and Steph Norman say reproductive success in young hinds takes care, but it’s not rocket science.
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
34 ANIMAL HEALTH
Whole flock vaccinations pays dividendsAN ACCIDENT with a piece of fencing wire on John Lee’s North Otago farm was an unlikely but telling factor in his upgrading a vaccination programme to lift lambing performance, reports MSD Animal Health.
John and his wife Allyson farm at Awamoko, north of Oamaru, running a commercial Coopworth flock and the Waikoura Coopworth Stud since the late 1980s. The stud was started by John’s father Bert Lee in the 1970s. The farm also carries dairy grazers.
For about 20 years, Lee had routinely vaccinated his top-performing flock to protect them against lamb losses caused by Campylobacter abortions. Ewe hoggets are mated and they receive their sensitiser and booster shot four-eight weeks apart, prior to tupping. They had been given a booster shot the following year as two-tooths but not vaccinated beyond that.
During those years he felt the flock were
being well protected from abortion losses – he also routinely vaccinates against toxoplasmosis, which had caused losses in the past – but a couple of years ago he started noticing abortion losses reappearing.
Lee says it’s hard to say how many lambs he’d started losing, but 30-50 lambs in a flock of 1200 ewes and 300 hoggets was a conservative estimate.
“Sometimes we’d see triplet-bearing ewes when we scanned, with two rotten lambs inside. Usually the surviving one would get very big and couldn’t be born alive.”
He says aborted lambs are often quite small – “like wee rats” – and easy to overlook in the paddock, so he’s not sure how big his losses really were. A laboratory diagnosis confirmed campylobacter and Lee started to consider changing to the recommended full vaccination programme for campylobacter, in which all ewes receive
an annual booster shot throughout their productive lives – not just as two-tooths.
Then an injury helped move things along. The cut end of a length of fencing wire sprung up and caught Lee in the eye and, although his eye and vision were saved, it put him out of action for a time. “It happened a week before lambing and we lamb about 1100 ewes in the first three weeks. We were also hand-rearing 150 calves then, so it was a busy time of year,” he recalls.
Fortunately his son-in-law, Joseph, was able to take a month off work and help out. But less fortunately, Joseph became infected with campylobacter himself during lambing. “He was a bit of a mess for a few days.”
That illness to a family member, and the re-emergence of campylobacter abortions among his Coopworth flock, were enough to persuade Lee to embark
on the full recommended vaccination programme with Campyvax4.
He says that while there is a cost to this, he’s convinced the full programme is paying for itself. “Last year the ewes scanned 197% and the hoggets 130%. Our losses between scanning and tailing were only about 6% so we’re pretty sure the vaccination programme is working.”
About 70% of Lee’s 200ha farm at Peebles is irrigated and the combination of a reliable feed supply and good shelter is another part of the reason for the good lamb survival.
The comparable losses between scanning and tailing on neighbouring properties are 10–12%, and Lee has seen big abortion outbreaks on nearby farms with hundreds of losses.
“We can’t afford to have that happen here,” he concludes.
The resurgence of Campylobacter abortions and infection of a family member helped convince John Lee to change to the full recommended vaccination programme.
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
ANIMAL HEALTH 35
Learn to trust your dogMY FIRST few heading dogs were medium eyed and firm; they didn’t creep and crawl, pre-ferring to get on with the job.
If I wanted slow and steady all I had to do was ask.
Then along came Lace. I bred her and trained her using a pole and ropes; she was easy to train and understood about nine work-ing commands.
Lace was very biddable and didn’t have a disobedient or bad bone in her body; she was a very sweet dog. However, she had me ripping my hair out in frustra-tion. She was the total opposite of any dog I’d ever had. Lace was so gentle and careful with sheep that they didn’t move off her like they’d moved off my previous heading dogs.
At my wits end, I rang a friend, asking if I could visit one afternoon and get his advice. Bernard Arends, one of New Zealand’s top dog tri-alists, was always happy to help people with dog training.
Lace and I gave Bernard a dem-onstration, showing our prowess for about 10 minutes; she carefully worked the sheep and obeyed all her commands and as usual I was frustrated at the slowness of it all.
“Do you see what I mean? She’s pathetic!”
“Anna, you don’t know what you’ve got. She’s stunning! You can train a dog, she does everything she’s told… now shut up and let her work them.”
Well, that was a slap in the face and one I’ll never forget, but they are the most pro-found words anyone has ever said to me about working a dog.
Bernard then taught me how to read sheep by observing their most subtle movements. As soon as I started working Lace again, keeping commands to a minimum, reading the sheep and allowing her to move when and where she thought best, everything fell into place and the sheep were like putty in Lace’s paws.
It was all about timing – when, and when not, to ask the dog to walk forward. Lace knew, I didn’t.
I couldn’t believe what was hap-pening, how easy and effortless it was. I went there with a dog I was
disappointed in and wanted to get rid of and went home with a new understanding and appreciation of who she was and how to work ‘with’ her.
From that day until the day she died, I loved that dog and muster-ing with her was a joy. She worked magic in tricky situations, she mas-tered the maddest sheep and she was the most loyal hard working dog you could ask for.
When we went trialling our demise wasn’t due to inadequate training or lack of skill on her part: I let her down. I know with-out a doubt, if she had been with someone who was experienced and understood the art of dog trials, she would have been a cracker.
My previous heading dogs
could shift quite big numbers on their own with their bold direct style. Lace would have struggled in similar situations, but that is why we have more than one dog in our teams; I’d just send her some help in the way of noise.
Rather than trying to change the essence of a dog, work with what you have; perhaps you need to adjust how you normally do things. Maybe your dog is special and you haven’t realised it; give trust a go.
In memory of Lace, one of the best dogs I had the pleasure of working alongside. • Anna Holland is teaching people dog training. For more information www.annaholland.co.nz or Ph. 06 212 4848 or [email protected]
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Anna Holland with Lace and Brooke at Martinborough Dog Trials back in the day.
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
36 ANIMAL HEALTH
Stud insures against sudden death of sheepDESPITE A tough year or two for dry-land farmers in North Canterbury, Hawarden Suffolk stud breeder Penni Loffhagen is philosophical.
“The January rains were great. It was about as much as we’d got for the previous 12 months. We don’t have any permanent streams so we’re grateful the council water scheme has kept us going through the drought.”
Loffhagen is a third-generation Suffolk breeder and, with her partner Rocci Scott, runs Tawhai Suffolk Stud on 230ha that she describes as run-ning “from hill country to swamp”.
With 570 recorded ewes and 125 ram hoggets and 125 ewe hoggets, Tawhai is one of the country’s big-gest Suffolk studs. It’s also a high-per-forming venture, with one of its rams crowned Supreme Champion at the 2014 Canterbury A&P Show.
Loffhagen started the stud in 1989 and has been on her current farm for 20 years.
She says their breeding pro-gramme favours a rangy animal that has a strong back end with “more roast”. She stays well connected to end users through a local butcher who supplies Canterbury restau-rants. This gives her a good feel for what consumers want when it comes to breeding a terminal sire.
In recent times she has also started selecting for resilience to footrot: six of her stud rams have a very low (desirable) score for the trait.
The hardiness of the Suffolk breed’s forbears and the challeng-ing environment in North Canter-
bury combine to produce sheep that will do well in most situations. That’s a useful attribute because there’s strong demand for rams and ewes from Tawhai from all over New Zea-land.
They go as far south as the Mack-enzie Basin, over to the West Coast and up to Blenheim in the South Island. They’re also sought after in the North Island with rams being sold through the Feilding stud fair and a couple also going to Latin American buyers recently.
Loffhagen is keen to see the ani-mals doing well in their new homes and they usually do, but about five years ago she started receiving reports from West Coast commercial flock owners of losses due to sudden death from clostridial disease among Tawhai Suffolks they had purchased.
“We’ve always used a five-in-one vaccine but it clearly wasn’t doing the job for that environment.”
Loffhagen suspects a change to lusher feed on the Coast may have played a part. She was determined to prevent sudden deaths among these valuable animals and after consult-ing her veterinarian she switched to a 10-in-one clostridial vaccine, Cov-exin 10.
“We’ve had no more clostrid-ial-related losses since we made the change,” Loffhagen says.
Since moving to Covexin 10, she’s been advocating for the 10-in-one option and encourages her customers to keep the animals and their progeny protected this way. The vaccine pro-vides active immunisation of sheep
and cattle against diseases caused by Clostridium perfringens types A, B, C, and D, C. chauvoei, C. novyi, C. sep-ticum, C. tetani, C. sordellii, and C. haemolyticum.
“These are valuable animals and it’s sensible [prevention],” she says.
Lambs, which can be vaccinated any time from two weeks of age, are given their sensitiser shot at tail-ing and the booster four-six weeks later at weaning. Previously vacci-nated ewes are given their annual booster two-six weeks before lamb-ing. Loffhagen makes sure lifestyle block owners who buy their ewes and lambs understand the vaccina-tion programme with Covexin 10.
She says the availability of the vaccine in 100-shot packs is ideal for their operation. Lambing, a labour-intensive period on a stud, is spread out from July to September, so the smaller pack sizes are useful.
“It’s also great for veterinarians servicing small block owners who might only have a few sheep to vac-cinate at a time.”
With the drought at least pausing, if not totally broken, Tawhai is enjoy-ing decent autumn growth and they are taking the opportunity to rede-velop pastures decimated by the 18-month dry spell.
Mating is under way and Loff-hagen is hoping to improve on last year’s 186% lambing. This produc-tivity allows them to cull intensively. Changing to a 10-in-one clostridial vaccine, she says, ensures that the animals that do make the cut can reach their potential.
Rocci Scott (left) and Penni Loffhagen: Using 10-in-one vaccine to give the best possible protection against clostridial disease in their valuable Suffolks.
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ANIMAL HEALTH 37RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
36 ANIMAL HEALTHCattle External Parasite Treatments
PRODUCT COMPANY METHOD OF
APPLICATION
ACTIVE INGREDIENT
CONCENTRATION INGREDIENT DOSE RATE
FORMULATED DOSE RATE LIVEWEIGHT
WITHDRAWAL PERIOD SAFETY MARGIN(X DOSE RATE)
CLAIMS COMMENTS
MEAT(DAYS)
MILK(DAYS)
BITINGLICE
SUCKINGLICE
TICKS BITING FLY
ECTOPARASITICIDESBayticol Bayer NZ Ltd Pour-on Flumethrin 10g/L 1mg/kg 10mL/100kg Nil Nil >20 No No Yes No Rainfast
Destruct Bayer NZ Ltd Pour-on Propetamphos 100g/L 10mg/kg 10mL/100kg 3 5 N/S Yes Yes No No Short meat withholding, single dose.
Blaze Coopers Pour-on Deltamethrin 1.5% w/v (15g/L) 0.75mg/kg 1mL/20kg lice and nuisance fly.
28 Nil >3 Yes Yes NoNote 4
Yes Nil bobby calf withholding for cows treated in late pregnancy.Can be used in cattle of any age.
Pouracide NF Jurox NZ Ltd Pour-on AlphamethrinPiperonyl ButoxideTetrachlorvinphos
7g/L75g/L20g/L
0.7 mg/kg7.5 mg/kg2.0 mg/kg
10mL/100kg 7 Nil - No Yes No Yes Fly and lice control
Tempor Merial Ancare Pour-on Temephos 20% w/v 12mg/kg 6mL/100kg 10 14 >8 Yes Yes No No Not affected by rain.
Niltime Virbac NZ Ltd Pour-on Bendiocarb 40g/L 4mg/kg 1mL/10kg 3 Nil 3x Yes Yes No No Can be used on calves 50kg and over.
ENDECTOCIDESEon Bayer NZ Ltd Pour-on Eprinomectin 5g/L 0.5mg/kg 1mL/10kg Nil Nil 5x Yes For the treatment and control of all gastrointestinal
roundworms and lungworms in cattle.
Outlaw Bayer NZ Ltd Pour-on Abamectin/Levamisole
10g/L200g/L
0.5mg/kg10mg/kg
1ml/20kg 42 42 3x Yes For the treatment and control of internal parasites including endectocide resistant strains and lungworm in cattle.
Edge Injection Bayer NZ Ltd Subcutaneous Injection
Doramectin, Levamisole
4mg/ml200mg/ml
0.2mg/kg10mg/kg
1mL/20kg 21 21 2x No Yes No No Edge is effective against all internal production limiting worms.
Paramectin Pour-on Jurox NZ Ltd Pour-on Abamectin 10mg/ml 0.5mg/kg 1ml/20kg 35 Nil 3x Yes Yes No No Also controls internal parasites
Paramectin Injection Jurox NZ Ltd Injection Abamectin 10mg/ml 0.2mg/kg 1ml/50kg 49 49 3x No Yes No No Also controls internal parasites. Registered for cattle and sheep.
EprinexFor Cattle & Deer
Merial Ancare Pour-on Eprinomectin 0.5% w/v 0.5mg/kg 1ml/10kg Cattle 0, Deer 7, Bobby Calves 0
Nil 10 Yes Yes No No Controls mites, sarcoptes scabiei, chorioptes bovis. Also controls internal parasites.. Weatherproof.
Eclipse Pour-on Merial Ancare Pour-on Abamectin/Levamisole
10mg/ml200mg/ml
0.5mg/kg10mg/kg
1ml/20kgbodyweight
35 35 3x Yes Yes No No Also controls internal parasites.
Exodus Pour-on Merial Ancare Pour-on Moxidectin 0.5% w/v 0.5mg/kg 1mL/10kg bodyweight
Nil DeerNil Bobby
Nil >10x Yes Yes Note 4 No Also controls internal parasites. Rainfast. registered for Cattle and Deer. Controls manage mites. Chorioptes bovis.
Genesis Injection Merial Ancare Subcutaneousinjection
Abamectin 1.0 w/v 0.2mg/kg 1ml/50kg 49 49 3x N/D Yes No No No sting. Also controls internal parasites. Also with Vitamin B12.
Genesis Pour-on Merial Ancare Pour-on Abamectin 1.0% w/v 0.5mg/kg 1ml/20kg 35 Nil 3x Yes Yes – – Also controls internal parasites. Rainfast.
Genesis UltraPour-on
Merial Ancare Pour-on Abamectin/Triclabendazole
0.5mg/kg300mg/ml
0.5mg/kg30mg/ml
1ml/10kgbodyweight
91 91 3x Yes Yes No No Also controls internal parasites, liver fluke.
Ivomec Injection Merial Ancare Subcutaneousinjection
Ivermectin 1.0% w/v 0.2mg/kg 1ml /50kg 35 35 20-30 Aids incontrol
Yes Note 4 No Also controls internal parasites
Ivomec Plus Merial Ancare Subcutaneousinjection
Ivermectin/Clorsulon
1.0% w/v Iver.10% w/v Clor.
0.2mg/kg Iver.2.0mg/kg Clor.
1ml /50kg 28 14 20-30 Aids incontrol
Yes Note 4 No Also controls internal parasites
Fasimec Pour on for Cattle
Elanco Pour-on Abamectin/Triclabendazole
0.5mg/kg300mg/ml
0.5mg/kg30mg/ml
1ml /10kgbodyweight
91 91 3x Yes Yes No No Controls roundworm lice and all stages of liver fluke.
Abamectin Injection Ravensdown Subcutaneous injection
Abamectin 10g/L 0.2mg/kg 1mL/50kg 49 49 3x No Yes No No Controls both internal and external parasites
Abamectin Pour On Ravensdown Pour-on Abamectin 10g/L 0.5mg/kg 1mL/20kg 35 Nil 3x Yes Yes No No Controls both internal and external parasites
TopLine Virbac NZ Ltd Pour-on Abamectin 1% w/v 10mg/mL 0.5mg/kg 1mL/20kg 35 Nil 3x Yes Yes No No Persistent activity against biting and suckling lice for 56 days. Rain resistant. Also controls internal parasites.
Cydectin Injection Zoetis SubcutaneousInjection
Moxidectin 1% w/v 0.2mg/kg 1ml/50kg 35 days 35 >5x Aids incontrol
Yes Note 4 No Also controls internal parasites. Non sting injection. Registered for cattle and sheep.
Cydectin Pour-on Zoetis Pour-on Moxidectin 0.5% w/v 0.5mg/kg 1ml/10kg Nil DeerNil BobbyNil Cattle
Nil >10x Yes Yes Note 4 No Also controls internal parasites. Rainfast. Registered for cattle and deer. Controls mange mites Chorioptes bovis
DectomaxInjection
Zoetis Subcutaneousinjection
Doramectin 1.0% w/v 0.2mg/kg 1ml/50kg 35 35 25x Aids in control
Yes No No Non-sting, also controls internal parasites. Registered for cattle, sheep and pigs.
DectomaxPour-on
Zoetis Pour-on Doramectin 0.5% w/v 0.5mg/kg 1ml/10kg 35 Nil 25 Yes Yes Note 4 No Rainfast. Also controls internal parasites.Controls mange mites Chorioptes bovis
Cydectin Plus Fluke Pour-on
Zoetis Pour-on MoxidectinTriclabendazole
5g/L moxidectin200g/L triclabendazole
0.5mg/kg moxidectin20mg/kg triclabendazole
1ml/10kg 84 84 10x Yes Yes No No Also controls internal parasites, including liver fluke
Note 1 - Do not use in lactating dairy cattle producing milk for human consumption or industrial purposes or within 28 days of the start of lactation.Note 2 - Extra care must be taken to use the correct dose in calves under 100kg weight, particularly if
animals are in light body condition, because they may be susceptible to overdosing.Note 3 - Not to be used in lactating cattle where the milk is used for human consumption or within 14 days of calving.
Note 4 - No claim for New Zealand cattle tick.Note 5 - Not for use in lactating in dairy cows. Effective against external parasites for 135 days for cattle weighing between 100kg & 400kg liveweight on day of administration.
Note 6 - Do not use on lactating cattleNote 7 – Do not use in cattle producing milk for human consumption or within 21 days of calvingN/S - Not supplied.
NOTE
The Rural News External Parasite Treatments guide for cattle is completed from information supplied by animal health companies. Although the information has been checked by our independent animal health advisor, Rural News accepts no responsibility or liability for inaccuracies.K
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Merial is a Sanofi company. MERIAL NZ LTD. LEVEL 3, MERIAL BUILDING, OSTERLEY WAY, MANUKAU, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND | WWW.MERIAL.CO.NZ | TEMPOR™ IS A TRADEMARK OF MERIAL. REGISTERED PURSUANT TO THE ACVM ACT 1997 | NO. A7517. ©COPYRIGHT 2014 MERIAL NZ LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NZ-14-TEM-070.
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
38 MACHINERY & PRODUCTS
Side-by-side designed with New Zealand in mindCAN AM off-road vehicles have earned a reputation for high performance and durability.
This calls on the com-pany’s heritage of build-ing snowmobiles for the rigours of the Arctic Circle and the wilderness of their home in Canada.
So when they announced the arrival of a new sport/utility side-by-side called Defender, you can be sure the opposition hoped it wouldn’t be very good, but unfortunately for them it has set a new benchmark to which these competitors now aspire.
Designed from the ground up, and including
major input from exist-ing users of such vehi-cles in New Zealand and Australia, the Defender is built around three tenets: tough, dependable and clever.
Designers and engi-neers spent a great deal of time developing, test-ing and understanding onfarm users’ ‘must-haves’ – as simple as somewhere to put a hand-ful of staples on a fencing job, or somewhere for the dog to sit when the cargo tray is fully loaded.
Looking at those three key design briefs, ‘tough’ sees the use of proven V-Twin Rotax engines pushing out 50 or 72hp, and said to have 20% more torque than its main
competitors, a tough chassis with 10 inches of suspension movement on each corner, and 11 inches of ground clearance. The Pro-Torq transmission uses larger CVT ratios for a quick response, has a work-specific low gear for arduous jobs, elec-tronic belt protection in the case of overload and an integral engine braking system for safety.
‘Capable’ sees the Defender offering best-in-class towing, hauling and carrying statistics, with a tow capacity of 907kg, a cargo bed rating of 454kg and a useful vehicle pay-load of 680kg, mean-ing that there is scope for a load plus a couple of meat-fed Kiwis on board
too. The four wheel drive system sees a choice of 2 x 4, 4 x 4 and the combina-tion of an open or locked rear differential, allow-ing configuration of the vehicle for the ground conditions at hand. The maker also claims the best turning circle in class at around 13 feet, beating the sector’s top selling com-petitor by a full two feet. An option of dynamic power steering makes tight turns even easier.
‘Clever’ means a ver-satile cargo box featur-ing the lin-Q quick-attach system, tie downs and anchor points, plus a simple design detail in the structure of the body with pre-moulded rebates that accept dividers to create
dedicated storage areas. Storage detail is also
considered in the cab area with a dashboard featuring cubbyholes on the upper surface, with shelves and ledges on the lower portion, and the option of a removable carry box under the pas-senger seats. This area also deserves a mention because without the carry box in position, seats flip up to allow a flat area for the farm dog to travel in comfort.
The cab area is also extremely roomy, helped by a front roll frame that is ‘pushed’ forwards to allow easy entry and exit,
and remove the risk of tall operators bumping heads on frames – often seen on more conventional lay-outs.
As part of the devel-opment process, cost of ownership was given great consideration, and resulted in a rear mounted engine, accessed by simply tipping the cargo bed. Service interval is 200 hours or 3000km, and warranty is offered for three years and unlimited kilometres.
Speaking on a dairy farm near Karaka, NZ manager for BRP NZ, Richard Shaw, com-mented that the com-
pany had run a number of competitive training days highlighting the uses of side-by-sides on farms seen on a daily basis.
Shaw said the Defender showed the best performance towing a loaded meal trailer, the best slow speed following while bringing a herd to milking, the tightest turn-ing circle and the lowest noise levels. It also scored highly in offering space for man’s best friend, and the availability of a master key for limiting the machine’s performance for inexperienced users.
MARK DANIEL
@rural_news
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
MACHINERY & PRODUCTS 39
THAT’S A HANDY WRAPWRAPPED ROUND bales make life easier during feeding out, but they pres-ent the problem of plas-tic waste to be separated from net wrap – not the nicest task on a cold wet morning.
German manufacturer Krone has introduced a system for its Comprima and Comprima X-treme models that allows periph-
eral wrapping, said to have a number of advantages.
By increasing the den-sity on the perimeter of the wrapped bale, the peripheral film reduces the bales’ tendency to expand and take in air. This increase helps reduce mould growth and ulti-mately improves the qual-ity of the baleage.
There is also the added
benefit of not needing to separate net wrap and bale film for recycling, as only one product is being used.
In practice, there are also time saving bene-fits during the wrapping cycle as the conventional wrapping can proceed immediately after periph-eral wrapping without any interruption, as well as saving on the over-
all amount of film being used
Changing from tradi-tional net to film is as easy as swapping rolls, with Krone recommending the use of 1280mm wide Krone Round Wrap which will cover bales from edge to edge. This product is said to have excellent adhesive properties and has a five-layer construc-
tion to help maintain bale shape.
The new peripheral wrap system can be fitted as a factory option on new machines or retro-fitted to all Comprima models built since 2014.
For more information contact www.tulloch.co.nz – Mark Daniel
Paul Hunter says new Kuhn drill’s calibration is simple and extremely accurate.
Drill offers quick autumn turn around
PAUL HUNTER’S operation covers 230ha near Te Awamutu in Waikato, where he grows maize and grass silage for sale to local dairy outfits and in winter provides grazing for beef and dairy stock.
Each year, around 170ha of flat-rolling land is destined for maize. Once harvested, the stubble is drilled with annual ryegrass which provides the winter feed, or silage crop for sale in the spring. The rotation leaves a narrow window for establishment of the grass crop before the cooler winter temperatures, and this created a need for the purchase of a drill to cover the ground rapidly.
In 2015 a decision was made to buy a Kuhn SD4000 drill which, with the help of some external contracts, has so far covered around 400ha.
Offering 4m of working width, and using a triple-disc layout, the 26 coulter assemblies allow a 150mm row spacing, while the wavy edged opening discs cut a slot and create a tilth to encourage rapid establishment. A 250kg downforce on each disc assembly ensures positive penetration in all ground conditions.
Double disc seed coulters work in with rear press wheels which control drilling depth; these have parallelogram linkages which allow plenty of movement for contour following. The coulter mounting frame incorporates a central pivot point that allows the drill to articulate, thereby allowing the rear coulters to follow the path of the opening discs, particularly when turning.
The machine is usually supplied with a single hopper, but the local dealer also fitted a second Stocks Ag hopper and metering system which allows the drill’s original hopper to be used for fertiliser, while the secondary unit is used to deliver seed; this effectively creates a low cost double box drill.
Hunter says “the unit is easier to pull than the drill it replaced, and although 1m wider it is still pulled over the rolling terrain by our 185hp tractor”. He also notes that the seed depth and coulter layout for contour following are superior, and that the calibration was simple and extremely accurate.
For more information visit www.kuhn.co.nz
MARK DANIEL
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
40 MACHINERY & PRODUCTS
Maize harvesting made easyMARCH NORMALLY sig-nals the start of the forage maize harvesting season, so it’s no surprise to see farm machinery giant John Deere introduce the new 8600i to New Zea-land’s contractors and recently put it through its paces in the mighty Waikato.
Power comes from a 13.5L straight six engine, sitting longitudinally in the chassis; output is rated at 574hp, climbing to 616hp maximum as the engine is pulled down to 1800rpm. This is coupled to a ProDrive hydrostatic transmission which offers field and transport ranges with speeds of 1-12km/h and 0-40km/h respec-
tively, with diff locks included for difficult trac-tion situations.
Most of that avail-able power is funnelled into the real heart of the machine – the chopping cylinder, said to be able to use over 75% of the avail-able power.
Power from the engine is transmitted via an angular gearbox, with a dry sump configura-tion to save power, to the cutter head by a multi-vee ‘power band’ that also drives the kernel proces-sor and the crop acceler-ator.
The DuraDrum chop-ping cylinder calls on the maker’s 50 years of for-ager design and has revi-sions to the knife holders for added strength and the ability to direct crop
flow; it carries 48 knives with a multi-bolt fixing system that allows rear-wards movement in the event of hitting a foreign object.
Additionally a new hydraulic cutter head brake can bring the unit to a stop within seven sec-onds. Sharpening is done by a system that runs the drum in reverse to main-tain a keener cutting edge, and an automated shear bar adjustment system maintains knife-to-ledger clearance.
Ahead of the cylinder a larger, four roller feeder housing has a larger 830mm feed opening to use the power on tap, and sees the JD IVLOC (variable length of chop) system offer chop lengths from 6-22mm in 1mm
increments; it allows easy changes as crop or cli-mate conditions change throughout the day.
Rearwards of the chop-ping cylinder the kernel processor uses a twin roller, quick removal system and a large speed differential between the rollers to ensure that all kernels are cracked for maximum nutrient uptake by the animals.
Finally the crop accel-erator offers 1800rpm rotational speed deliver-ing a concentrated crop stream into trucks and trailers; Auto Fill is an option.
The driver sits in an air-conditioned cab with wide front glass, taller side glasses and slim pil-lars for great visibility; an air suspension seat
MARK DANIEL
ensures comfort, and a refrigerated compart-ment keeps drinks and food cool. Control is via the CommandArm to the right side of the seat; it has a number of ‘hot keys’ for repetitive tasks.
A wide range of lights suits field or road travel, and the option of a guid-ance system on the maize header takes care of steer-ing and collecting all the crop.
Interestingly, and as a result of growers need for yield and constituent data, the JD HarvestLab system uses near infra-red technology to give real-time readouts of dry matter and tonnage har-vested, and there is also the option of measure-ment of crude protein, starch and fibre content if required.
During the busy har-vest period there’s a
saying “if it’s not chopping it’s not earning” so the latest series sees service taken care of with large one piece panels for easy access, auto greasing sys-tems and the likes of slide out radiator screens to help reduce daily servic-ing time. There is also the option of an air compres-sor to offer swift clean down between job moves or at the end of the day.www.johndeere.co.nz
TEMPO HITS RIGHT NOTETHE VADERSTAD Tempo precision drill has been upgraded for the 2016-17 season with a new, more airtight aluminium seed metering unit.
This is said to require less overall air consumption, but more impor-tantly allows easier adjustment and fine tuning of the singulator to achieve drilling precision in most crops.
There is now also a choice of 16 or 22mm seed tubes, with associated sensors and seed coulters. The former better suits the likes of canola, sugar beet and sunflower seeds, while the
larger diameter units are ideal for use in pumpkins and soya beans.
The seed tube option is available for all post-2015 production machines.www.vaderstad.co.nz
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
MACHINERY & PRODUCTS 41
Easier and simpler fencingFENCING EASIER to erect, simpler to maintain and longer lasting: those are the hallmarks of Waratah, in the business for 130 years.
The company accepts that farmers are traditional about fencing and timber will remain a popular choice of material, but believes steel fencing products have a lot to offer.
At this year’s Southern Field Days at Waimumu, Waratah’s galvanized Jio Star and the bigger Jio MaxY were popular and the newly released 2.7m Jio MaxY post was welcomed by industrial contractors and deer farmers, who noted that with 30+ holes along its length, there were plenty of wire attachment points for using the Jio clip for high fencing jobs.
In lots of cases a bigger strainer is needed for high fences, so Waratah also
released a 3.25m Ezypipe strainer post which goes in the ground about 1.2m and works with the steel Waratah Adjusta-stay for a complete strainer assembly.
Wire tie-off is easy for professionals, but not everyone can tie a neat knot and indeed don’t want to. For these individuals the Gripple T-clip is available; it brings each line wire around the strainer post, hooking the legs of the T-clip onto the line wire, pushing the wire through the one-way hole to
complete the join. The T-clip has been around for
nearly eight years – a simple and effective way of preventing sore hands suffered in tying-off line wires.
Also for wire joining and tensioning, the Gripple Plus range is available in small, medium and large sizes; The Gripple tool can be used to join two wires or to tension each wire.Tel. 0508 927 2824www.waratahfencing.co.nz
MARK DANIEL
Wire tie-off with Waratah Gripple T-clip.
WIRELESS TOOL PROVIDES REMOTE IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT
Phill Everest uses Precision VRI to irrigate his farm.
A NEW integrated system that offers remote control, as well as monitoring and reporting of pivot irrigation is now available.
Irrigation specialist Lindsay New Zealand says its system provides complete remote pivot management, with VRI control, monitoring and reporting.
The company says with Precision VRI, growers can precisely apply the correct amount of water over multi-ple crops, soil types and terrains and integrate with Field-NET remote management – giving growers the ability to easily create or edit irrigation plans and produce irrigation reports to assist with better decision-making
Three years ago, Ashburton farmer Phill Everest con-verted his beef and cropping farm to dairying and uses Precision VRI to irrigate his farm in accordance with local council regulations. His farm – Flemington Dairies – fea-tures deep silt loams braided by shallower stony soils. This results in challenges where springs appear in wet condi-tions and areas of the farm that has open drains running down its length.
With precision technology, Everest is able to turn off irrigation over and around pivot ruts, tracks, water troughs, gateways and drains. He also can avoid irrigat-ing boggy areas, reducing rutting and allowing these to recover before changing his plan and irrigating again – effectively managing problems posed by heavy, season-ally waterlogged soils.
Using Growsmart Precision VRI to irrigate 132 hect-ares, Everest has been able to reduce his water usage by 3,350,000 litres in comparison to a standard system – applying a uniform rate application of 15 mm across the property. The additional water can irrigate an additional 23 hectares on his farm.
Lindsay NZ says adding FieldNET to Precision VRI requires additional hardware that allows farmers to cus-tomise and remotely manage water applications.
A strong, long-lasting steel enclosure houses the new control panel in which a farmer can view irrigation plans in colour at the pivot point. Irrigation depths can be changed on the fly – a handy feature when the dairy herd are going into a paddock that the irrigator is about to cover, the irri-gation on that paddock can be turned off then and there.
For more visit: www.growsmartprecisionvri.co.nz
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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
42 MACHINERY & PRODUCTS
Keeping an accurate eye on seeds
A smoother cut
Engine sales take a dipTHE GLOBAL decline in sales of agricultural tractors, headers and machinery is cited as the reason for a marked drop in production by major engine supplier Deutz Ag.
Sales of engines amounted to 137,781 units vs 196,403 in 2014 – a drop of around 30%. The company says cus-tomers resisted spend-ing in the second half of the year.
And it says its better-than-normal result for 2014 was likely caused by customers buying early in an effort to beat new emission regulations about to be applied to engines under 130Kw.
The falling numbers led to revenue down 11% at Euro122 billion, against a figure of Euro 137 billion for 2014, and net income falling to Euro 3.5 million from Euro 19.5 million.
GRASSLAND MACHINERY specialist Pottinger has recently announced the availability of disc mowers fitted with the new TriDrive gear optimisation technol-ogy, said to offer smoother running and reduced noise levels.
Developed and manufactured in Austria, the cutterbar set-up uses sim-ilar sized gears, resulting in three teeth always being in-mesh, which allows better power transmission and softer start-up characteristics.
The gear sets also have a new surface finish which makes them smoother run-ning, reduces noise and extends working life by being supported on twin-raced, tapered bearing assemblies.
– Mark Daniel
DRILL SPECIALIST Vaderstad has announced a new unique technology called SeedEye, which allows farmers to easily set the number of seeds required per square metre without the need for any cal-ibration tests.
The company says counting seeds is far more exact then calculating quantity based on seed weight and it has been developed after customer requests to be able to predict total plants per square metre.
Units comprising six optical sensors illuminated by infra-red light are placed in the seed tubes. As seeds pass the light rays there is a momentary interruption which is recorded by an optical transistor.
The total number of ‘breaks’ is regis-tered and processed, resulting in a mea-surement of seed volume said to be 99% accurate in rape and 98-99% in cereal seeds with a rate of 250 seeds per second.
The system is also said to be fully auto-matic and takes into account any dust or residue that might build up on the sensors.
In practice, the operator sets the desired seed volume per square metre with an i-Pad and without the need for a con-ventional style calibration test.
The drill’s radar measures forward
speed, and works with the E-Con-
trol to con-tin-
uously achieve the set-point with information being received from the SeedEye sensors. If the operator wishes to change the seeding rate, this is easily done via the i-Pad and happens instantaneously regardless of the tractor’s forward speed.
The system is currently available for Vaderstad Rapid A 400-800S and Rapid A 600-800C drill units.www.vaderstad.co.nz
Keep up with the latest stories from by following us atGET SOCIAL WITH RURALNEWS
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BREAKING NEWS MANAGEMENT STORIES MARKETS & TRENDS MACHINERY REVIEWS
MARK DANIEL
Bar Tires Grass Mulching Kit
Choose Performance That LastsThe Bush Hog® brand means superior performance now and for years to come. It was born more than 60 years ago with the famous Bush Hog® rotary cutters. From the very beginning, Bush Hog® TOUGH features were built into these machines. Many Bush Hog® mowers built 30 years ago are still on the job.
Canopy (not pictured)Our white canopy mounts directly to the roll bar (ROPS tube) to provide shade, comfort and protection from harmful UV rays.
Grass Mulching Kit Under-deck, bolt-on baffles capture grass clippings so specially designed mulching blades can shred them into a fine, lawn-feeding mulch.Working Lights Halogen headlights are easily angled from the operator’s seat and throw plenty of light for after hours mowing.Trailer Hitch Kit Easily bolts-on to enable you to tow a utility trailer or other tools and attachments.Anti-Scalping Roller Additional anti-scalp protection on discharge side is provided by this easily bolted-on roller. Recommended for use with mulching kit.Bar Tires Specially designed for maximum traction on hilly terrain or red clay and mud. Power Deck Lift (Not pictured) Electronically raises or lowers the mowing deck to your chosen cutting height. (Available on Professional Series only)**Accessories differ by model. See dealer for complete details.
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www.bushhog.comBush Hog®, Inc. 2501 Griffin Ave., Selma, AL 36703 (334) 874-2700©April 2014 Bush Hog®, Inc.
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Farm owner and agricultural consultant Phill Everest uses Growsmart®
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Phill sees the benefits in terms of track maintenance and grass growth as well as ensuring the availability of his water. The water he saves under one pivot can be redistributed to irrigate an additional 23ha of his farm.
FieldNET® integrates with Precision VRI to provide complete remote pivot management, with VRI control, monitoring and reporting.
“The first time using the new FieldNET tool for Precision VRI, I found it very easy. It was much simpler and quicker having just the one place to go to control my pivot and manage my Precision plans”
Find out how you could benefit from increased water efficiency using Precision VRI with FieldNET by talking to your Zimmatic® dealer or visiting growsmartprecisionvri.co.nz
© 2016 LINDSAY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ZIMMATIC, FIELDNET AND GROWSMART ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF THE LINDSAY CORPORATION.
PHILL STAYS GREEN WITH INCREASED REVENUE
RURAL NEWS // APRIL 5, 2016
RURAL TRADER 43
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The best the world can offeremail: [email protected]
www.atvlifeguard.co.nzPh 09-439 7688
STRAINRITE™ MK2 FENCING PLIERS (RRP $39.99)
WHEN YOU PURCHASE 3 COILS OF
CYCLONE 2.5 MM HT WIRE*
Speedrite™Non Geared Prewound Reel with Politape 200 m or Poliwire 400 m
$99Valid 1/4/2016 - 30/4/2016
Terms and Conditions: All off ers and prices are valid 1 April 2016 to 30 June 2016 unless stated otherwise, or while stocks last. Prices include GST and are subject to change. Some products may not be available in all stores but may be ordered on request. Prices do not include delivery, delivery costs are additional. Images are for illustrative purposes only. Energizer area recommendations are a guide only and in multiple wire terms. Performance will be aff ected by the condition of your fence.
Freephone 0800 10 22 76 www.pggwrightson.co.nz Helping grow the country
Prewound Reel with
99
CYCLONE 2.5 MM HT WIRE*
Zinc alloy coating offers twice the life of traditional heavy galvanised wire
Complies with New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 4534
Cyclone®Wire 2.5 mm High Tensile 2 Life 650 m 25 kg
$7499*Limit one pair of pliers per customer, while stocks last
PER COIL
Powers up to 360 km / 200 ha fence
Includes remote
Speedrite™Mains Energizer 36000RSRemote SystemPrice valid with trade-in of an old energizer of any brand, in any condition
$1,399
Speedrite™Mains Energizer 63000RSRemote SystemPrice valid with trade-in of an old energizer of any brand, in any condition
$2,299
Powers up to 630 km / 350 ha fence
Includes remote
Out with the old, in with the new!
(RRP $39.99)
Powers up to 30 km / 18 ha of fence
3.0 J maximum output energy
Speedrite™Kiwiana 3 Joule Mains Energizer
$299Limited stock available
Trade-in your old energizer and receive this great deal on a
Speedrite Mains Energizer 36000RS or 63000RS Remote System.
Speedrite™Wood Post Pinlock Insulators125 Pack + 50 Free
$6499
Speedrite™Wood Post Claw Insulators125 Pack + 50 Free
$5999